Portrait of a Young Woman in Red 120

This Fayum mummy portrait, dating from around 120 CE, depicts a young woman with dark hair adorned with a gold braid and wearing a red tunic. The portrait is painted in encaustic, a technique involving pigments mixed with hot wax, on a wooden panel. These portraits, originating in the Fayum region of Egypt, were used as funerary art, representing the deceased for their afterlife. This captivating example, now in the Pushkin Museum, Moscow, provides a glimpse into the lives and appearance of individuals from Roman Egypt.