Young Man with a Distant Gaze

The artwork

His head slightly turned, his eyes looking far away: this young man seems to be thinking of something we cannot see. You receive it printed on handmade Amalfi paper, in a handmade frame.

• The young face, the short hair, the light moustache and the pale mantle.
• A thoughtful and warm portrait that gives character to a study or a library.
• A gift for a young man or for anyone who loves history.

It was painted in Egypt between AD 100 and 125, in the years of the emperor Trajan and the first years of Hadrian, when the country was a province of Rome. The painter used encaustic, colours mixed with wax, on a wooden panel meant to be placed over the face of the mummy, among the bandages. It is one of the portraits we call Fayum portraits, after the region of Egypt where many were found.

According to the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, which holds it, the short hair and the faint moustache date it: they were the fashion of those years. We do not know for certain where it comes from, but the angle of the head, the stripe on the tunic, the mantle and the panel rounded at the top recall the portraits of Hawara, the cemetery of Arsinoe, the main city of the Fayum. Perhaps the young man lived there.

In a study it brings home a young man of nineteen centuries ago, lost in his thoughts. It is a gift for anyone who loves history.

Unique quality material

Print on handmade Amalfi paper
Sheet size: 29 x 42 cm (11.4 x 16.5 in)
With frame: 31 x 44 cm (12.2 x 17.3 in)
Material: artwork printed on very fine handmade Amalfi paper with deckled edges
Frame: dark brown with gold fillet, handmade, with glass