A Man From Where?: Creating a Comprehensive Record of a Mummy Portrait in the Oriental Institute's Collection

This paper is the first comprehensive account of the male mummy portrait (also known as a "Fayum" or "Fayoum" portrait) in the Oriental Institute in Chicago. I identify the man as a soldier based upon his cloak, scarf, and phalerae (the last of which have been destroyed by conservation but are attested by early photographs of the portrait). The paper also links the identification of this man and his conservation with the ongoing APPEAR Project, run by the Getty Museum in Los Angeles in partnership with 49 museums around the world, including the Oriental Institute. The project seeks to create a unified database for coordinated global research on this striking and under-researched genre of portraiture.