Fayyum Portraits of Christians

1. Fayyum Portraits of Christians Ray Chan

3. Basic Information • Most were discovered around the Fayyum region of Egypt • First appeared in the middle of the 1st Century AD • Painted on thin panels of wood which were cut and shaped to fit the mummies • Portraits were inserted over the mummy wrappings and covered the mummy • Purpose was to serve as a record of the deceased of the way that person appeared in life

4. #98- Mummy of a Woman with a Painted Plaster and Linen Mask • Painted sometime around A.D. 270-280 during the Roman Period • Excavated in King Mentuhotep II’s forecourt • One of the two complete mummies surviving from excavations at Deirel-Bahri • Face was reconstructed around 1983/1984 • Roman fashion as portrayed in the portraits

6. #99- Portrait of a Woman in Encaustic and Tempera on a Linen Shroud • 4th Century AD • Excavated at Antinoopolis • Contains aspects of Roman, Greek, and Egyptian culture • Greek inscription of name and age • Gesture of protection and veneration representative of Isis • Purple colored dalmatic (tunic)- Roman symbol of power and immortality • Ultimately reveals that the 4th Century AD was a period of transition between paganism and Christianity

8. Takeaways from Fayyum Portraits • Portraits of young men/women illustrate the low life expectancy during that period • Proof of the interaction of Greek, Roman, and Egyptian culture • Burial practices of Egypt with added details of Roman and Greek styles through fashion, inscriptions, etc. • Due to the costs of mummification and painting of portraits, only the wealthy class could afford such practices • Since the wealthy in the Roman period were Greeks and Romans, this leads to the possibility of Egyptian influence of Greek and Roman culture