Painted on plaques of precious
wood or on linen cloth, the portraits of Fayoum
are dated Roman period : Ist - IVth
centuries AD.
There are some thousands preserved in museums
there since W. Mr. Flinders Petrie
discovered in March, 1888 "an immense cemetery of Roman
time with rooms brick-built tombales still containing the bodies
of their owners". The emotion seizes him when he perceives,
still fixed to its mummy, the first portrait, "a splendidly
drawn girl, in of sweet grey tints".
The majority of the funeral
portraits present the life-size
faces. They should assure to the deceased a face in him beyond
identical to that of its life on earth. They are very meaning.