Portrait of a young woman, A.D. 110–20
Encaustic on wood; 43.7 x 34 cm (17 1/4 x 13 in.)
Royal Museum of Scotland, National Museums of Scotland, Edinburgh

Fayum mummy portraits is the name given to a large number of paintings from the first to third century. These are encaustic paintings, made with hot, pigmented wax on wooden panels, which were inserted into the mummies of the deceased. The surviving paintings are predominantly from the Fayum region in Roman Egypt, where the practice was common and the dry heat preserved many of the paintings until today. First of many Fayum paintings. ... Encaustic painting, also called hot wax painting, involves using heated beeswax to which colored pigments are added. ... Wax has traditionally referred to a substance that is secreted by bees (beeswax) and used by them in constructing their honeycombs. ... Mummified cat from Ancient Egypt. ... Al Fayyum is one of the governorates of Egypt located in the centre of the country. ... For other senses of this name, see Roman Empire (disambiguation). ...

Most of the portraits depict the deceased at a relatively young age, and many show children. According to Walker (2000), "CAT 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 has also been proposed that the mummy paintings were originally wall paintings which were copied or used in their original form as panels. CT apparatus in a hospital Computed axial tomography (CAT), computer-assisted tomography, computed tomography, CT, or body section roentgenography is the process of using digital processing to generate a three-dimensional image of the internals of an object from a large series of two-dimensional X-ray images taken around...

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. The portraits are remarkably naturalistic and it is believed that they were painted during the subject's lifetime. 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. Pompeii is a ruined Roman city near modern Naples in the Italian region of Campania, in the territory of the comune of Pompeii. ... The excavations of Ercolano Herculaneum (in modern Italian formerly Resina, but since 1969 Ercolano) was an ancient Roman town, located in the territory of the current commune of Ercolano, in the Italian region of Campania. ... Naturalism in art refers to the depiction of realistic objects in a natural setting. ...

Many musueums around the world have fine examples of Fayum 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. The centre of the museum was redeveloped in 2000 to become the Great Court, with a tessellated glass roof by Foster and Partners surrounding the original Reading Room. ... The main hall of The Royal Museum of Scotland The Royal Museum of Scotland is a museum on Chambers Street, in Edinburgh, Scotland. ... The central lobby of the museum The Metropolitan Museum of Art, often referred to simply as The Met, is one of the worlds largest and most important art museums, located on the eastern edge of Central Park in Manhattan, New York, United States. ... Official language(s) None, English de facto Capital Albany Largest city New York City Area  Ranked 27th  - Total 141,205 km²  (54,520 sq. ... I.M. Peis Louvre Pyramid: one of the entrances to the galleries lies below the glass pyramid. ... The Eiffel Tower, the international symbol of the city, with the skyscrapers of La Défense business district 5 km/ 3 mi behind. ...

See also

• Gallery of Fayum mummy portraits.

This page is a collection of Fayum mummy portraits. ...

References

• Walker, Susan (Ed.): Ancient Faces. Mummy Portraits from Roman Egypt. New York, 2000. ISBN 0415927447.

External links

• Proportion and personality in the Fayum Portraits, A.J.N.W Prag, November 2002

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Fayum mummy portraits