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wildbrush's art.to.day - ancient encaustic findings -

Encaustic on linen painted only with brushes.

This framentary prortrait is painted in encaustic on linen, and presumably originally formed part of a shroud [cf. 34, 93]. The man has the close-corpped hair characteristic of the Severan period.

A man, ca. 225-250 AD (detail).
The color scheme here is exceptional: Egyptian blue has been used in the flesh areas, giving a more purple hue, and with the deep shadows and pale background the sitter looks as though he is seen in bright moonlight.
The black frame is interrupted on the right by an applied crescent moon of stucco; balancing it on the left was a circular object - the full moon or the sun. To the right of the man's face is an object painted in green, perhaps a plant.

[picture 88 of the book]