Mummy Shroud with Painted Portrait of a Boy

A.D. 150–250

Medium

Tempera on linen

Dimensions

62 × 52.5 cm

Status

In Museum Collection

Collect24 Art ID

C24-135341

Shrouds of finely woven linen provided an alternative means of covering the head and face of the deceased in Roman Egypt, where the portrait followed traditional funerary iconography equivalent to those on wooden panels. Here, a young man on the cusp of adulthood stands out in his white tunic against a carbon black ground. A small falcon in yellow and red ochre stands on his proper left shoulder. Though lacking divine regalia, the bird is surely a simple rendition of the Egyptian god Horus, the son of Isis and Osiris, or Harpocrates, the child of Isis and Serapis, who in bird form so often accompanies the deceased on his journey to the other world. The subject wears a wreath of green leaves with berries painted in yellow. Narrow purple *clavi* (woven stripes denoting Roman citizenship) extend down from his shoulders. The simple oval neckline and absence of a mantle differ markedly from the vast majority of male portraits, where a mantle is always draped over one shoulder (such as the Portrait of a Man, [74.AP.11](http://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/7140/unknown-maker-mummy-portrait-of-a-bearded-man-romano-egyptian-about-ad-150-170/)). Here, a series of short red strokes c…