Youth with a Surgical Cut in the Right Eye in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Sept. 2007

Youth with a Surgical Cut in the Right Eye
ca. 190-210 AD
Encaustic on limewood

Accession # 09.184.4

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.

Text from the Metropolitan Museum of Art label.