1/9/2024 0 Comments Fayum portraits![]() For encaustic painting, beeswax was melted and mixed with powdered pigments. Shadows were also defined at this stage with more diluted brushstrokes of the same hue. Preparatory sketches were commonly drawn with a brush, with grey, black, and sometimes red marks. A layer of wax or animal glue could also be applied to prepare for the drawing. Before painting, the textile support was often prepared with a primer made of sulphate or calcium carbonate, used to fill the discontinuities of the fabric, making its surface flat and smooth. The textile fibre usually found in Egyptian funeral paraphernalia, and, more specifically, in painted burial cloths, is linen. The use of tempera and encaustic required both knowledge and mastery of the media, thus suggesting that the relevant technique was likely passed on from one artist to another in a studio setting. The results showed that most of the paintings were realized with either encaustic (using beeswax as a binding medium for the pigments), or tempera paint (containing predominantly animal glue)-or a combination of both. ![]() In recent years, a comprehensive study carried out within the framework of the APPEAR Project has led to the examination of 61 mummy paintings (51 mummy portraits and 10 panel paintings) from fourteen museums to gain a better understanding of the materials and techniques used to manufacture them. Funerary portraits were found not only in the Fayum Oasis, but also along the Nile valley, at Saqqara (south of Cairo), Deir el-Bahari (west bank across Luxor), Panopolis (now Achmim), and Antinoopolis (now Sheikh ‘Ibada). Petri, the archaeological findings of Fayum were systematically documented. Only after 1890, with the excavation campaign by W. Della Valle onwards, and then sold on the antiquarian market with poor or absent documentation on their origin. ![]() Of the approximately 1000 extant portraits currently scattered throughout the world, the provenance of many remains untraced, as most of them have been illicitly excavated from their first discovery in 1615 by P. Funerary portraits could be painted directly on the linen shroud wrapping the deceased, or on wooden tablets that were either placed on the sarcophagus or inserted between the mummy’s bandages. These frontal and three-quarters portraits were painted using a naturalistic style, clearly influenced by the Hellenistic tradition present in Egypt since the start of Macedonian domination (4th century BC). The resulting cultural immingling is witnessed in a combination of funerary traditions, bringing together Egyptian embalming practices and Roman burgeoning experimentation with portraiture, namely faithful painted representations of the deceased’s face to be placed on the latter’s mummified body. These depictions of real-life human faces, with their lifelike expressions and highly individualized traits, belong to the world’s oldest portrait-painting tradition in known history, believed to date back to the Roman rule in Egypt (30 BC–4th century AD). The Graeco-Roman funerary painted artworks known as the corpus of Fayum mummy portraits, discovered in the area surrounding the Fayum Oasis on the west bank of the Nile River, displays a unique array of ancient Egyptian and Graeco-Roman cultural influences. Furthermore, our multi-analytical, non-invasive approach yields further details regarding the fragment’s pictorial technique and constituting materials, based on spectral and morphological analysis and cross-sectional examination. The unexpected age resulting from 14C analysis suggests the need to reconsider previous assumptions regarding the period of production of the Fayum corpus. Our study introduces the use of Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) to assess the age of a fragment of an encaustic painting belonging to the corpus of the Fayum portraits. So far, their production period has been defined essentially on the basis of the relevant differences in their pictorial style. The lack of proper archaeological documentation of the numerous excavated portraits currently prevents their chronological dating, be it absolute or relative. Examination of these artworks may provide insight into the Roman Empire’s trade and economic and social structure during one of its most crucial yet still hazy times of transition. Fayum mummy portraits, painted around 2000 years ago, represent a fascinating fusion of Egyptian and Graeco-Roman funerary and artistic traditions.
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