Mummy Portrait of a Youth

A high infant mortality rate in Roman Egypt encouraged confidence in magical spells to ward off illness and injury. For this reason the boy wears a small round container for amulets on a plain black necklace, possibly made from leather. His head has been almost completely shaved to feature a single lock at the back (with golden clip) and two small tufts on his brow. This pattern is in accordance with the practices of devotees of the goddess Isis, whose son the god-child Horus was the model for this hair treatment.



Though a child, he wears a customary white adult funerary tunic with a narrow purple clavus (woven strip) on his proper right and a mantle (pallium) draped over his proper left shoulder. The encaustic is painted directly on the wooden panel. Brush marks are visible in the wax and a pointed tool was used to create the eyelashes and black outline of the eyelid. Resin staining is visible at the edges of the portrait and on its reverse, indicating it was inserted into mummy wrappings, despite the panels smaller than life-size dimensions and square shape. Portraits of children are rare amongst funerary panels and, though apparently quickly finished, the painter’s ability to maintain a high painterly quality throughout is evident.