Elderly Man Flanked by Egyptian Gods
Unknown Artist
ca. A.D. 250
Medium
Tempera on sycomore wood
Dimensions
H. 38 cm. (14 15/16 in.); W. 22.4 cm (8 13/16 in.)
Classification
Panel painting, elderly man
Period
Roman Period
Department
Egyptian Art
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Rogers Fund, 1944
Accession Number
44.2.2
Tags
About this artwork
This remarkable mummy portrait exemplifies the fusion of Egyptian funerary traditions with Greco-Roman artistic techniques during Egypt's Roman Period. Painted in tempera on sycamore wood around 250 AD, the portrait depicts an elderly man flanked by Egyptian deities seated on his shoulders, a unique iconographic feature suggesting the deceased's protection in the afterlife. The work belongs to the tradition of Fayum mummy portraits, though it incorporates Egyptian religious symbolism rarely seen...