With their direct full gaze and strong presence, these portraits, at once Greco-Roman in their painting style and intrinsically Egyptian in their purpose, bring the inhabitants of ancient Egypt before us with compelling immediacy.īased on a similar exhibition at the British Museum in 1997, Ancient Faces presents approximately seventy of the finest Fayum portraits, drawn from museums throughout Europe and the United States. Until recently almost entirely overlooked by scholars and the public alike, these are startlingly realistic portraits of men and women of all ages.
Called Fayum portraits, these images were sometimes placed over the heads of mummies. From the first to third century A.D., the art of painted panel portraits flourished in Roman Egypt.
