FAYUM MUMMY PORTRAITS

'Fayum mummy portraits' (or 'Faiyum mummy portraits') is the name given to a large number of first to third-century paintings from Egypt. These are encaustic paintings, made with hot, pigmented wax on wooden, or in some cases cartonnage, panels, which were inserted into the mummies of the deceased. The surviving paintings are predominantly from the Faiyum region in Roman Egypt, where the practice was common and the dry heat preserved many of the paintings until today, but the name is often used of all such portraits from other Egyptian sites, or of unknown origin. They are the only survivors of the highly prestigeous panel painting tradition of the classical world, which gave rise to the practice of Coptic iconography.

Contents

The subjects of the paintings

Gallery of images

See also

Notes

References

External links

The subjects of the paintings

Under Greco-Roman rule, Egypt hosted several Greek settlements, mostly concentrated in Alexandria, but also in a few other cities, who lived alongside some seven to ten million native Egyptians.^[1] Faiyum's earliest Greek inhabitants were soldier-veterans and ''cleruchs'' (elite military officials) who were settled by the Ptolemaic kings in reclaimed lands.^[2][3] Native Egyptians also came to settle in Faiyum from all over the country, notably the Nile Delta, Upper Egypt, Oxyrhynchus and Memphis, to undertake the labor involved in the land reclamation process, as attested by personal names, local cults and recovered papyri.^[4] It is estimated that as much as 30 percent of the population of Faiyum was Greek during the Ptolemaic period, with the rest being native Egyptians.^[5] By the Roman period, much of the "Greek" population of Faiyum was made-up of either Hellenized Egyptians or people of mixed Egyptian-Greek origins.^[6] While commonly believed to represent Greek settlers in Egypt,^[7][8] the Faiyum portraits instead reflect the complex synthesis of the predominant Egyptian culture and that of the elite Greek minority in the city.^[5] According to Walker, the early Ptolemaic Greek colonists married local women and adopted Egyptian religious beliefs, and by Roman times, their descendants, who are likely represented in the portraits, were "mixed" and were viewed as Egyptians by the Roman rulers, despite their own self-perception of being Greek.^[10] The dental morphology^[11] of the Roman-period Faiyum mummies was also compared with that of earlier Egyptian populations, and was found to be "much more closely akin" to that of dynastic Egyptians than to Greeks or other European populations.^[12]
Most of the portraits depict the deceased at a relatively young age, and many show children. According to Walker (2000), "C.A.T. scans of all the complete mummies represented [in Walker (2000)] reveal a correspondence of age and, in suitable cases, sex between mummy and image." Walker concludes that the age distribution reflects the low life expectancy at the time. It was often believed that the wax portraits were completed during the life of the individual and displayed in their home, a custom that belonged to the traditions of Greek art,^[13] but this view is no longer widely held given the evidence suggested by the C.A.T. scans of the Faiyum mummies, as well as Roman census returns. In addition, some portraits were painted directly onto the coffin; for example, on a shroud or another part.
Together with the surviving frescoes and objects from Pompeii and Herculaneum, and tomb frescoes in Macedonia, they are the best preserved paintings from ancient times and are renowned for their remarkable naturalism. It is, however, debatable whether the portraits depict the subjects as they really were. Analyses have shown that the painters depicted faces in a repetitive and formulaic way, albeit with a variety of hairstyles and beards. They appear to have worked from a number of standard types without making detailed observations of the unique facial proportions of specific individuals which give each face its own personality.
Many museums around the world have fine examples of Faiyum mummy portraits on display, notably the British Museum, the Royal Museum of Scotland, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Louvre in Paris.

Gallery of images

See also

★ Faiyum Governorate

★ Faiyum

★ Coptic art

★ Coptic Museum

Notes

1. Adams, Winthrope L in Bugh, Glenn Richard. ed. "The Hellenistic Kingdoms". ''The Cambridge Companion to the Hellenistic World''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2006, p. 39
2. Stanwick, Paul Edmund. ''Portraits of the Ptolemies: Greek Kings as Egyptian Pharaohs.'' Austin: University of Texas Press. 2003, p. 23
3. Adams, ''op cit.''
4. Bagnall, R.S. in Susan Walker, ed. ''Ancient Faces : Mummy Portraits in Roman Egypt (Metropolitan Museum of Art Publications). New York: Routledge, 2000, p. 27
5. Bagnall, ''op cit.''
6. Bagnall, pp. 28-29
7. http://www.egyptologyonline.com/mummy_portraits.htm
8. Encyclopædia Britannica Online - Egyptian art and architecture - Greco-Roman Egypt
9. Bagnall, ''op cit.''
10. Walker, Susan, ''op cit.'', p. 24
11. Dentition helps archaeologists to assess biological and ethnic population traits and relationships
12. Irish JD (2006). "Who were the ancient Egyptians? Dental affinities among Neolithic through postdynastic peoples.". ''Am J Phys Anthropol'' 129 (4): 529-43
13. Encyclopedia Of Ancient Greece, Nigel Guy, Routledge Taylor and Francis group, p.601

References

★ Walker, Susan (Ed.): Ancient Faces. Mummy Portraits from Roman Egypt. New York, 2000. ISBN 0-415-92744-7.

External links

★ Proportion and personality in the Faiyum Portraits, A.J.N.W Prag, November 2002

★ History of Encaustic Art