The hair is plaited into a low bun at the back of the crown. A row of snail curls frames the brow, and banks of them are shown at the sides of the head. The black hair is centrally parted (the parting is obscured by a crack in the panel). The jewellery consists of gold ball earrings and a gold necklace with pendant crescent with circular terminals. The mantle is worn over the proper left shoulder, its edge rolled back, and may be seen as a line on the proper right shoulder as it falls down the woman's back. The black clavus over the proper right shoulder is edged with gold and has no stitching. Shown turned in three-quarter view, the subject wears a mauve tunic and a mantle drawn in a deeper shade, with dark red folds.

The background is grey beneath the head and neck, and greenish below the drapery (the green appears at the base of the panel). Part of the painted surface is lost to the left of the figure. Portrait of a woman in encaustic on limewood: longitudinal cracks run through part of the panel at intervals.

Mummy gold in hair