Portraits

The introduction of painted portraits into Egypt dates from about 130 A.D., and succeeded to the moulded and stucco cartonnages with which the heads and busts of the mummies were at that period covered. The portraits come from the cemetery of Hawara in the Fayum, which was excavated by Mr. Petrie in 1889, and show a strong Greek influence. This is to be accounted for by the fact that there was at this period a large Greek colony in the Fayum. The portraits are executed in colours, which have been ground to a very fine powder, and were then rubbed up with heated wax. This was applied with the brush to a panel of cedar or fine wood, varying in thickne from ½ to 1 inch, and about 9 by 17 inches in size. The portrait was laid over the face of the mummy, and kept in place by the bandages. From the conventional style of these portraits it is thought that they were executed after death, and finished from memory. There are good specimens of these Graeco-Egyptian pictures in the National Gallery and the British Museum.