Enter through one face that feels individual. Exit by testing that feeling against another work, its material and original function.
- N1
Describe without personality.
Record shape of eyes, brows, mouth, cheeks, ears, hair or headdress. Avoid “kind,” “stern” or “wise” until formal evidence has been described.
COMMAND: replace one personality adjective with three visible features. - N2
Find the convention.
Compare another face of similar date, material or status. Shared eye shape, frontal pose or idealized age may belong to workshop and social convention rather than anatomy.
Inscription can identify a person even when facial features are generalized. Conversely, lifelike features without a secure name do not provide biography.
- N3
Change material and function.
Compare stone statue, coffin face, painted panel or relief. Frontality, gaze and modelling respond to where the face worked: temple, tomb, domestic setting or body covering.
ROUTE WARNING: “portrait” is not one timeless category. A Roman-period mummy portrait and a royal statue can pursue different relationships between body, identity and ideal. - N4
Audit recognition.
Modern viewers are drawn to eyes and individuality. Ask what that desire makes easier to see—and what it hides about patronage, ritual function and conventions of status.
What identifies the person?Which traits are shared?Where was the face encountered?What does material permit?
Verification route
Use inscription, archaeological context, material technique, comparative typology and period-specific portrait scholarship. Do not infer character from facial form.