The Mysterious Fayum Portraits: Faces from Ancient Egypt - Softcover

Doxiadis, Euphrosyne

Softcover

ISBN 10: 050028217X ISBN 13: 9780500282175

Publisher: Thames and Hudson Ltd, 2000

Synopsis

These remarkable paintings take their name from a district of Roman Egypt, whose people in the first three centuries ad included Greeks, Egyptians, Romans, Syrians, Libyans, Nubians and Jews. In the Egyptian tradition, they embalmed the bodies of their dead; but then placed a painted portrait over the mummy, preserving the memory of each individual to an uncanny degree. Over 1000 have so far been discovered – men, women and children of all ages. Illustrating almost 200 of the portraits, Euphrosyne Doxiadis’s book combines arresting beauty with up-to-date scholarship. Having selected the best and most interesting, she has grouped them according to the places where they were found. Many new photographs were commissioned and some are shown since cleaning.

Doxiadis’s text sets the people and the paintings in their social, artistic and geographical context, describing the techniques used and showing how the Fayum portraits relate to Byzantine icon painting, in a tradition that extends from ancient Greece to the Renaissance and on to the present day.

About this title

About the Author

Euphrosyne Doxiadis is a Greek artist and writer. She was born in Athens and studied art in Salzburg, at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan, and at the Slade School of Fine Art and the Wimbledon School of Art in London. Her interest in the Fayum portraits was kindled by working with the distinguished Greek painter Yannis Tsarouchis.

From the Back Cover

The Fayum portraits were created by the people of a flourishing district of Roman Egypt during the first three centuries AD. In the old Egyptian tradition, these people embalmed the bodies of their dead, but then they placed over the mummy, a painted portrait to preserve the memory of each individual. Over 1000 portraits have so far been discovered of men, women and children. This book features over 100 of these ancient paintings. The explanatory text sets the people and the paintings in their social, arti

Edition details

• Publisher: Thames and Hudson Ltd
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 050028217X
• ISBN 13: 9780500282175
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 248