Portrait of a Youth with a Surgical Cut in one Eye

Portrait of a Youth with a Surgical Cut in one Eye

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The faint growth of hair on the jaws and upper lip identify the subject of this painting as a youth. Remarkably, his right eye seems to show signs of an abnormality that has been treated. The grayish fold of skin below the lower lid, the lack of lashes, and the slightly slack right cheek may be traces of the abnormality; the straight line on the lower lid suggests a surgical cut to relieve the condition. The palette of this panel is considerably lighter than that of the other panels in these galleries, but it does resemble that of certain paintings from Hawara in the Fayum. Panel portraits continue to fascinate visitors and scholars in our day and age. This portrait here was even used to illustrate racist and antisemitic literature. To learn more about this dark moment in the object’s biography, read the curatorial interpretation below (also available, with images, here). For more on the technique used to create this portrait, see 09.181.1. Link to the Artist Project Y.Z. Kami on Egyptian mummy portraits

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Portrait of a Youth with a Surgical Cut in one EyePortrait of a Youth with a Surgical Cut in one EyePortrait of a Youth with a Surgical Cut in one EyePortrait of a Youth with a Surgical Cut in one EyePortrait of a Youth with a Surgical Cut in one Eye

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.