antinous mummy portrait on wood with brass inlay. the image is printed and then finished with oil paint and waxed. the brass is all hand chased and the wood antiqued.
Mummy portraits were paintings done in wax or egg tempera on wood for use on sarcophagus.They were of Romans or Greeks that lived in the colonies in Egypt.Antinous was the favorite of the emperor Hadrian he drowned in the nile in 130 AD his tomb has never been found but it is likely he had a portrait similar to this one.