Portrait of the Boy Eutyches, Egypt, Roman Period, encaustic on wood panel, 15 x 8 in. (38 x 19 cm), in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
What appears at first glance to be a sophisticated contemporary oil portrait, is, in fact, an encaustic painting that is roughly 2,000 years old.
Painted in Egypt during the time of Roman occupation, around 100 -150 C.E., this is a beautiful example of the durable and non-yellowing medium of encaustic. Pigment is suspended in hot wax, often augmented with linseed oil, cold wax, egg yolk or resins, and applied to a wood panel.
We know the boy’s name because of the inscription at the collar of his tunic.
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