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Lot Essay
Much scholarship has been devoted to the study of Fayum mummy portraits, the name given to a group of naturalistically painted portraits on wooden boards attached to mummies found in the Fayum area and elsewhere dating to the mid 1st-mid 3rd century A.D. A debate arises amongst scholars on how best to culturally classify these images. While dating to the Roman period, they are found in Egypt, and painted in the Greek naturalistic tradition. Despite this difficulty in contextualization, there is a universal appeal in these hauntingly lifelike portraits. According to E. Doxiadis (p. 12 in The Mysterious Fayum Portraits, Faces from Ancient Egypt), “their faces have, by some miracle of painting, captured life itself. The viewer becomes involved in direct communion with the person portrayed, who is as if in limbo, in a twilight zone between life and death."
Painted mummy portraits also constitute the most significant body of material for the study of Roman portrait painting. They provide insight into Romano-Egyptian burial customs as well as style and fashion trends from the 1st-3rd century A.D. Exactly how they were used before being bound and wrapped onto the head of mummies is unclear. One discovery suggests that they hung in frames in homes until eventually being placed over the mummy. It has also been suggested that they were painted close to the time of death and carried around the local city during a procession (ekphora) celebrating the deceased before being taken to the embalmer. The current example with her olive skin, wide set eyes, and delicately rendered jewelry is typical of the type. For a similar example, see no. 109, p. 209 in E.R. Russman, Eternal Egypt: Masterwork of Ancient Art from the British Museum.
Painted mummy portraits also constitute the most significant body of material for the study of Roman portrait painting. They provide insight into Romano-Egyptian burial customs as well as style and fashion trends from the 1st-3rd century A.D. Exactly how they were used before being bound and wrapped onto the head of mummies is unclear. One discovery suggests that they hung in frames in homes until eventually being placed over the mummy. It has also been suggested that they were painted close to the time of death and carried around the local city during a procession (ekphora) celebrating the deceased before being taken to the embalmer. The current example with her olive skin, wide set eyes, and delicately rendered jewelry is typical of the type. For a similar example, see no. 109, p. 209 in E.R. Russman, Eternal Egypt: Masterwork of Ancient Art from the British Museum.