FAYOUM PORTRAITS

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.


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