Fayum portraits are the shock of naturalism after millennia of ideal faces. Eutyches is a child with a specific mouth. He is also a mummy portrait, made to be bound over a wrapped body. Greek name, Egyptian death, Roman-period paint.
That hybrid is the end of this catalog’s timeline. Dendur is Augustan architecture. Eutyches is Augustan-era looking. Egypt is still Egypt, and the face has learned a new grammar.
People often call these the first true portraits. Egyptian art had always portrayed. What changed is the invitation to believe in oil-and-wax individuality. The invitation works. It is hard not to feel you could recognize him in a street.
Hang him last in the period walk. After sphinxes and spells, a boy. The night journey did not get simpler. It got a face you might dream without trying.
