Ancient Faces: Mummy Portraits from Roman Egypt (A catalogue of Roman portraits in the British Museum) by Susan Walker

by Susan Walker, John Taylor, Paul Roberts

The painted panel and shroud portraits of Roman Egypt constitute the only corpus of coloured images of individuals to survive from classical antiquity. Many are of outstanding artistic quality, and as a whole they reflect a range of techniques and styles. The images combine both the subject's belief in the traditional Egyptian cults, which offered them a firm prospect of life after death, and the Roman manner, of reflecting the subject's status in life. The portraits reveal the adoption of Roman fashions in dress and personal adornment by persons remote from the centre of the empire, but likely to have been actively engaged in its local administration. Many of the best known portraits come from the Fayum, but others in various media are known from sites in the Nile Valley and along the Mediterranean coast. This catalogue, published to coincide with an exhibition at the British Museum, presents a wide range of these portraits, showing the Roman influence coexisting with traditional Egyp

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, History, Egypt, Ancient History, Archaeology, Art History

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Dr Susan Walker (2 spaces), Keeper, Department of Antiquities, Ashmolean Museum

Research Interests: Greek and Roman art; Hellenistic and Roman Egypt.

Reviews

[Drianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Catalogue from the version of this exhibit of the mummy portraits of Roman Egypt at the Met (expanded from the 1997 version accompanying the version at the BM). Helpful introductory material, although I wish Doxiadis’ remarks on the techniques had been considerably longer. The point is of course the catalogue, which is awesome, full of great photographic reproductions and ample description. Many of these portraits I had never seen before.

[Logan Truesdell · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good reference book. Has come in very handy for preparing to write an honors paper for college. Images are very good quality. I appreciate that they tell us background and label the images with descriptions and numbers for easy tracking. Especially love how many named portraits were included.

[Malika-Liki · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very interesting book. Amazing Shots of the portraits. stunning faces. a great book

[Carmen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating and haunting. A collection of mummy portrait paintings from Egypt under Roman rule, first to third A.D. Some of the earliest portraits in existence, very exquisite. This was first published as a companion book to the Met exhibit in 2000, which was incredible. I believe they still have a few on exhibit.

[Lulu · Rating 5 out of 5]

from the late 1st century BC or the early 1st century AD onwards. It is not clear when their production ended, but some research suggests the middle of the 3rd century