Portrait of the Boy Eutyches
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| Portrait of the Boy Eutyches | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Year | c. A.D 100-150 |
| Medium | Encaustic paint on wood |
| Subject | Eutyches |
| Dimensions | 38 cm × 19 cm (15 in × 7.5 in) |
| Location | Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
Portrait of the Boy Eutyches, also known as Portrait of Boy, is a portrait by an anonymous artist from Roman Egypt of about 100 to 150 AD. The portrait depicts a young boy, who is named as "Eutyches, freedman of Kasanios" by an inscription. It is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York.[1] The work was produced after the boy's death, and is classified as one of the Fayum mummy portraits.[2]
Such mortuary portraits, attached to the burial, were popular as an artistic medium in the 1st century AD during the Roman Empire's rule over Egypt, which was dominated by an upper class of ethnic Greeks. This blending of Roman, Greek and Egyptian cultures in the imperial province of Egypt resulted in a unique art form that drew influences from Classical Greece and Egypt while at the same time utilizing materials provided by Rome's flourishing economy.[1][3]
It was donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art by Edward Harkness in 1918, and is usually on display at the museum.[1]
The portrait includes a Greek inscription written in dark purple pigment below the neckline of the tunic. The boy is identified with the name "Eutyches" (Ancient Greek: Εὐτυχής) followed by "freedman of Kasanios". Scholars do not completely agree on whether the rest of the inscription is translated as "son of Herakleides Evandros" or "Herakleides, son of Evandros".[1]