**Mummy Portrait of a Bearded Man**  
**A.D. 220–250**  
Attributed to the [Brooklyn Painter](https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/person/103KN8) (Romano-Egyptian, active mid-3rd century A.D.)  
On view at  [Getty Villa, Gallery 210, Roman Egypt](https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/gallery/113ZAV)  
View full record details  
Romano-Egyptian funerary portrait of a man painted in tempera (pigments suspended in animal glue) on a cedar of Lebanon panel. A rare import to Egypt, cedar of Lebanon was used for the construction of elite funerary and devotional equipment. Carbon-14 analysis provides a date of 196-55 B.C. for the wood, several centuries earlier than the stylistic dating of the panel at A.D. 225-250. This chronological inconsistency may have resulted from the wood having been removed from an earlier tomb and reused centuries later. The recycling of rare and costly materials is not uncommon in Roman Egypt, where wood – especially cedar of Lebanon – was highly valued.  
The man wears a white tunic with blue ***clavi*** (woven stripes). In his right hand he holds a small glass, probably containing red wine, in his left hand (missing its thumb) a folded wreath of rose petals, possibly indicating affiliation with the cult of Isis. Although this portrait is without provenience, many of its features, including the diagonal clipping of the top corners to aid insertion into the mummy wrappings, are commensurate with panels from Er-Rubayat as are the heavy application of pigment modeled from areas of flat paint and the linear style of the facial features. Specific portraits of observable similarity are in the collections of The Brooklyn Museum ([41.848](https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/3458)), National Museums Scotland ([1902.70](https://www.nms.ac.uk/explore-our-collections/collection-search-results/?item_id=301634)) and The National Museum of Ireland (Dublin 1902.4), all from Er-Rubayat.  
The tempera was applied atop a white gesso ground. Madder (an organic red pigment) was used for the rose petals, red wine, and the flush of the cheeks. Indigo (an organic plant dye) was mixed with madder to make the purple stripes on his collar and the dark blue of the ***clavi*** (woven stripes). Indigo was also mixed with the yellow pigment orpiment for the green foliage below the rose garland. There is considerable paint loss at the top right and bottom left of the panel. Parts of the face, notably the center of the forehead, right ear lobe, and the lower lip have been retouched

**Caption Information**   
Attributed to the Brooklyn Painter (Romano-Egyptian, active mid-3rd century A.D.)  
Mummy Portrait of a Bearded Man,  A.D. 220–250  
Tempera on wood  
Object: 34 × 25 cm (13 3/8 × 9 13/16 in.)  
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Villa Collection, Malibu, California,  79.AP.142

**Full Artwork Details**  
**Title:**  
Mummy Portrait of a Bearded Man  
**Artist/Maker:**  
Attributed to the [Brooklyn Painter](https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/person/103KN8) (Romano-Egyptian, active mid-3rd century A.D.)  
**Date:**  
A.D. 220–250  
**Medium:**  
[Tempera on wood](https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/search?materials=Tempera+on+wood)  
**Dimensions:**  
Object: 34 × 25 cm (13 3/8 × 9 13/16 in.)  
**Place:**  
[Egypt](https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/search?q=%22Egypt%22) (Place Created)  
**Culture:**  
[Romano-Egyptian](https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/search?culture=Romano-Egyptian)  
**Object Number:**  
79.AP.142  
**Alternate Titles:**  
Mummy Portrait of a Man (Alternate Title)  
**Department:**  
[Antiquities](https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/search?department=Antiquities)  
**Classification:**  
[Painting](https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/search?classification=Painting)  
**Object Type:**  
[Panel](https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/search?object_type=Panel)  
**Resources**  
[Explore this portrait and others in the exhibit "Faces of Roman Egypt" on Google Arts & Culture](https://artsandculture.google.com/story/YQVRtpUvIK_TtA)

Provenance   
[Nicolas Koutoulakis](https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/person/104QB3)1910 - 1996(Geneva, Switzerland)  
sold to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1979.

Bibliography   
Show information

[Frel, Jirí. In collaboration with Sandra Knudsen Morgan.](http://www.getty.edu/publications/virtuallibrary/0866590048.html) [***Roman Portraits in the Getty Museum***](http://www.getty.edu/publications/virtuallibrary/0866590048.html)[. Exh. cat. for "Caesars and Citizens," Philbrook Art Center, Tulsa, Oklahoma, April 26-July 12, 1981, p. 9, fig. 10.](http://www.getty.edu/publications/virtuallibrary/0866590048.html)

[Thompson, David L.](http://www.getty.edu/publications/virtuallibrary/0892360380.html) [***Mummy Portraits in the J. Paul Getty Museum***](http://www.getty.edu/publications/virtuallibrary/0892360380.html) [(Malibu: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1982), pp. 56-57, 66, no. 11.](http://www.getty.edu/publications/virtuallibrary/0892360380.html)

Parlasca, K., J.-E. Berger, and R. Pintaudi. El-Fayyum (Milan: Ricci, 1985), p. 148, ill. p. 149.  
Doxiadis, Euphrosyne. The Mysterious Fayum Portraits: Faces from Ancient Egypt (London: Thames and Hudson, 1995), color ill. no. 7; comments pp. 221, 224, and p. 237, n. 36.  
Bianchi, Robert S. "The Mummy as Medium," Archaeology. (November/December, 1995), pp. 60-66, cover ills.  
Borg, Barbara. ***Mumienportra¨ts: Chronologie und kultureller Kontext*** (Mainz: Ph. von Zabern, 1996), pp. 15, 84, 94, 100, 106, 123, 152, 210 no. 10; pl. 52.  
Walker, Susan, Morris Bierbrier, et al. ***Fayum. Misteriosi Volti dall'Egitto***, exh. cat. (Rome: Fondazione Memmo, October 22, 1997-February 28, 1998), pp. 126-27, no. 94.  
Sotheby's, London, Antiquities including Western Asiatic Antiquities and Cylinder Seals from the Erlenmeyer Collection (Part II), June 12, 1997, listed as comparison for lot no. 338.  
Borg, Barbara. "Der zierlichste Anblick der Welt," Aegyptische Portraetmumien. Mainz: 1998, p. 90; fig. 110.  
Geoffroy-Schneider, Berenice. Fayoum. (Paris: Editions Assouline, 1998), p. 77.  
Walker, Susan, ed. Ancient Faces: Mummy Portraits from Roman Egypt, exh. cat. (New York: Routledge, 2000), no. 47.  
***The J. Paul Getty Museum Handbook of the Antiquities Collection*** (Los Angeles: 2002), pp. xviii-xix, fig. 9.  
Parlasca, Klaus and Hans G. Frenz.. ***Repertorio d'arte dell'Egitto greco-romano***. A. Adriani, ed. 2 ser. Vol. 4, ***Ritratti di Mummie*** (Roma : "L'Erma" di Bretschneider, 2003), p. 53, no. 730, pl. 166,4.  
***The J. Paul Getty Museum Handbook of the Antiquities Collection.*** Rev. ed. (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2010), p. xviii, fig. 9.  
***Psychological Perspectives 59***, no. 1 (2016), Front cover ill.  
Mozur, Nancy. "About the Art: Mummy Portraits." Psychological Perspectives 59, no. 1 (2016), pp. 5, ill.  
The J. Paul Getty Museum. "Faces of Roman Egypt" \[exh.\] Published via Google Arts & Culture (2021), [https://artsandculture.google.com/story/YQVRtpUvIK\_TtA](https://artsandculture.google.com/story/YQVRtpUvIK_TtA) (acc. April 7, 2021), ill.  
Svoboda, Marie. "Image Comparison of Ancient Mummy Portraits: The Appear Project." ***IIPImage (blog).*** November 19, 2021, accessed November 30, 2021 [https://iipimage.sourceforge.io/2021/11/image-comparison-of-ancient-mummy-portraits-the-appear-project/](https://iipimage.sourceforge.io/2021/11/image-comparison-of-ancient-mummy-portraits-the-appear-project/), ill.  
Leonard, Benjamin. "At Face Value." ***Archaeology*** (January/February 2022), p. 39, ill.  
Marlowe, Elizabeth. "The long, winding, and bumpy road: seeing museum antiquities as colonial legacies." ***The Routledge Handbook of Classics, Colonialism, and Postcolonial Theory***. Katherine Blouin and Ben Akrigg, eds. (London: Routledge, 2025), p. 457, ill.

Exhibitions   
[Fayum Portraits: Painted Portraits from Roman Egypt](https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/exhibition/103PQZ)  
A list of the locations of this exhibition  
The J. Paul Getty Museum (Malibu)March 24, 1981 - December 1, 1997  
[Ancient Faces: Mummy Portraits from Roman Egypt](https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/exhibition/103NBF)  
A list of the locations of this exhibition  
The British Museum (London)March 13, 1997 - July 20, 1997  
Palazzo Ruspoli (Rome)October 22, 1997 - April 30, 1998  
[Ancient Faces: Mummy Portraits from Roman Egypt](https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/exhibition/103MDH)  
A list of the locations of this exhibition  
The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York)February 9, 2000 - May 7, 2000

The Getty Museum Collection 

[https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/103TQN](https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/103TQN)

Mummy Portrait of a Bearded Man,  
A.D. 220–250, Romano-Egyptian, Tempera on wood, The Getty Museum Collection. 

Mummy Portrait of a Bearded Man, A.D. 220–250, Romano-Egyptian, Tempera on wood, The Getty Museum Collection.