Plaster Portrait Mask of a Youth

Plaster Portrait Mask of a Youth

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This youth's black hair is combed into a slightly wild style reminiscent of portraits fashionable in the Greek-speaking eastern provinces of the Roman Empire in the mid- and later second century a.d. Over his white tunic with rose clavi (stripes) he wears a white mantle, with a woven H-motif visible below his left hand. The youth's head is raised on a rather high support decorated with Egyptian motifs. Flanking his neck are banks of three golden uraei, and at the back of his head is the falcon god Re-Harakhty, flanked by two of the Sons of Horus, Qebesenuef and Duamutef.

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Plaster Portrait Mask of a YouthPlaster Portrait Mask of a YouthPlaster Portrait Mask of a YouthPlaster Portrait Mask of a YouthPlaster Portrait Mask of a Youth

The Met collection of ancient Egyptian art consists of approximately 30,000 objects of artistic, historical, and cultural importance, dating from about 300,000 BCE to the 4th century CE. A signifcant percentage of the collection is derived from the Museum's three decades of archaeological work in Egypt, initiated in 1906 in response to increasing interest in the culture of ancient Egypt.