Portrait of a Man Wearing an Ivy Wreath

Ancient Egyptian · Roman Period, early to mid–2nd century

Medium

Lime (linden) wood, beeswax, pigments, gold, textile, and natural resin

Original size

39.4 × 22 × 0.2 cm (15 9/16 × 8 11/16 × 1/8 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Medieval

This portrait from Roman-period Egypt carries the uncanny stillness of someone who was once very much alive — a young man gazing directly at the viewer across nearly two thousand years. It belongs to the tradition of Fayum mummy portraits, painted panels placed over the faces of the deceased during burial. The artist worked in encaustic, binding mineral and earth pigments in molten beeswax and applying them with a heated metal tool, a technique that produced a luminous, almost sculptural surface that has survived remarkably intact. The use of gold leaf and the fine textile incorporated into the panel suggest this was a commission for a family of considerable means. The ivy wreath crowning the man's head carries religious weight: ivy was sacred to Dionysus, the god associated with the afterlife and resurrection, and such garlands appear frequently in portraits of young men who died before reaching full adulthood. Our hand-painted oil reproduction translates the warmth and directness of the original onto canvas — the depth of those dark eyes, the subtle modelling of the face, the quiet dignity of a person who was clearly known and mourned. It is painted by hand, one brushstroke at a time, by an artist who has studied the piece closely.