Thin-Faced Bearded Man

The artwork

This face is painted in wax: powdered colours, mixed with melted beeswax, were laid hot on the wood and, once cool, blended with a hard tool. You receive it printed on handmade Amalfi paper, in a handmade frame.

• The thick black hair, the large round eyes, the beard that marks the thin cheeks.
• A portrait of great character that gives strength to a study.
• A gift for a man with a beard, or for anyone who loves painting.

The man lived in Egypt between AD 160 and 180, when the country was a province of Rome. His portrait, painted on limewood, was placed over his mummy's face among the bandages when he died. It is one of the portraits we call Fayum portraits, after the region of Egypt where many were found.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, which holds the original, explains how the painter worked. First he drew the outlines of the face and garment on the panel. Then he laid on the coloured wax in long strokes: thinner for the background and clothes, thicker for the face. This is the encaustic technique, from a Greek word meaning "burnt in", already used by Greek painters five centuries before Christ; these portraits are the only ancient works painted this way to have come down to us. Here the light and shadow moving across the forehead, cheeks and neck are rendered with rare skill.

In a study or a library it is a face that stays in the memory. It is a gift for anyone who loves painting and wants to know how the ancients did it.

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