Were mummy portraits like this painted by Romans?
When these were made, Egypt was definitely a part of the Roman Empire and these works--thankfully well preserved when virtually all other Roman-era paintings have been lost--are squarely Roman in style: people are depicted realistically, with shaded areas indicating depth, and they have a non-generic face: they look like a specific individual.
At the same time, many people living in Egypt continued making Egyptian-looking art, like they had for centuries, with typical gold-heavy mummies and coffins, but some communities would insert these panels of wood above the face, it was woven into the linen wrapping like a mask.
What do you know about this girl?
We don't know much about her personally, but this type of portrait is called a "Fayum Portrait" after the area where most of them have been found. They're part of a tradition from Roman Period Egypt. These lifelike, Greco-Roman style portraits of people wearing Roman clothing were intended to be wrapped into mummy wrappings. In our Mummy Chamber you can see a mummy from this period, Demetrios, with his portrait.
All of these have a strong stylistic consistency. Same artist?
Good eye. Not all by the same artist but produced during the same period and in the same region in Egyptian history, the Roman period. They reflect the multicultural nature of the society at the time. These would have been attached onto the faces of human mummies. Around 900 such mummy portraits are known today and they are referred to as "Fayum portraits" Named after the Fayum Oasis south of Cairo where most of them were found.
Do we know for sure different artist? Do we know names of artists or dates?
We do know for sure that they were produced by different artists because they range in date from 95 to 230 CE and were found at different sites.
It's not surprising that they are similar though. Egyptian art through time tends to follow relatively rigid iconographical schemes. These portraits were likely coming out of workshops where many artisans were trained to produce them in very similar styles.
Tell me more.
This was a mummy portrait that would have been inserted into the mummy wrappings over the face of the deceased. This portrait represents the blending of cultures that occurred in Roman period Egypt: the style is Greco-Roman but the function of the object comes from Egyptian funerary practice.
The Fayum portraits, named for the region in which they were found, have become a unique window into Greco-Roman painting traditions because most examples from the Mediterranean do not survive.
Tell me more about the woman with earrings.
We don't know her name or title, so we can only guess what her status was. The purple color of her garment suggest that she was wealthy, it was an expensive color for Roman clothing like what she is wearing.
Was this portrait made before she died or after?
There has been debate about this over the years, but the most recent research shows that most portraits of this type, known as Fayum portraits, represent the deceased at an age similar to the age at which they died.
Therefore, we now assume that a portrait of this type would have been made soon after death, as part of the embalming and funerary process.
What can you tell me how this was made?
It would have started with a wood panel, which was painted with a type of paint known as encaustic.
The ingredients in ancient encaustic include beeswax, egg, resin, and linseed oil, all mixed with pigments which give the mixture the desired color!
Do you know where it was found?
While we don't know for sure, these portraits are found in high quantities in the Fayum oasis in Egypt.
What is the charm depicted on the necklace?
We actually aren't sure! It's not detailed enough for us to be certain, but a protective amulet is a likely identification.
Tell me more.
This portrait illustrates the blending of cultures that happened in Roman period Egypt. The portrait was designed to be inserted into the linen wrappings of this woman's mummy.
It is painted on a wood panel (likely cypress or acacia wood). The paint used is known as encaustic, which is a wax-based pigment that can be used much like oil paint.
The ingredients in ancient encaustic included beeswax (bleached through a boiling process), egg, resin, and linseed oil as well as the--usually mineral based--pigments.
