Golden Mummies : Panel painting

Golden Mummies

<p style='text-align: justify;'>Double-sided representation of a man removed from his mummified body, painted in encaustic (hot wax) on a thin wooden panel, which has had additional pieces of wood added at the sides to enlarge it, and at the top to reinforce it. This is one of a small number of such panels that are painted on both side, where one side seems to be a first draft or a rejected portrait, and the other side is the finished, better quality work. It is not certain whether both sides represent the same man or two different men, but there is some physical resemblance between the two images. The hairstyles on both portraits suggest a date in the late Trajanic or early Hadrianic period, c. 110 to 120 AD.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>On the 'finished' side of the portrait, the subject has dark hair tousled in a short fringe, and a light beard and moustache. He wears a white tunic with a dark red stripe (clavus), and a white mantle draped over his shoulders.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>On the reverse side of the panel, the subject's hair is shorter and smoother, his beard is heavier, and his clothing and pose are the same.</p>