The Face of a Mummy: The Incredible Fayum Portraits

Classical Wisdom Litterae: Ancient Paint

Dear Classical Wisdom Member,

It probably doesn’t seem like that obvious of a theme. After all, when one imagines the ancient world, paint is not what first springs to mind. 

The popular misconception, instead, is a world white washed and pristine. The crumbling marble that was once carved into columns, characters and all sorts of stunning creations still stand today atop rocky outcrops and on display in museums the world over... but their presence, in many ways, is misleading. 

They show us the shapes, but not the colors of ancient Greece and Rome.   

Indeed, in their own time the temples and statues looked quite different. Brilliant hues once brung their solid forms to life. And while sadly most of these pigments have worn off and vanished with the passing of thousands of years, there are a few exceptions, stunning examples, of ancient color. 

Whether they were preserved by the harshest, driest sands of Egypt or safeguarded by time’s cruel affliction with volcanic ash...or even kept alive by *hopefully* faithful renditions, ancient paint opens up a luminous window into the history of the western world.

So to get you started, we’ll begin with arguably the most striking examples of painting from the ancient world: The Mummy Portraits. These works, perhaps more than any other existing art from the ancient world, connect you directly with the people who walked this earth so long ago. Not only were they literally placed between the dead and the living, atop their immaculately preserved bodies, their remarkable realism is like a clear window into the past. 

Indeed, you can imagine one of these men, women or children walking down the streets of Egypt today. Read below and see their faces... 

Classical Wisdom Members: The article below comes from our beautiful Classical Wisdom Litterae issue dedicated to Ancient Paint.

We delve into the greatest painter of the ancient world Apelles, the lasting frescoes of Pompeii, mysterious Etruscan paintings, as well as the ancient tactics for creating these stunning works. 

Discover the painters, the paintings, and the real life people of the classical era in our Classical Wisdom Litterae Magazine below the article. 

All the best,

Anya Leonard

Founder and Director
Classical Wisdom

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The Face of a Mummy: The Incredible Fayum Portraits

By Jocelyn Hitchcock

A mummy, a vampire, and Frankenstein’s Monster walk into a bar… and order a classic Hollywood horror trope. Throughout the years, mummies have been cinematic vehicles for fear, leading to a widely held belief that Egyptian mummies were inherently spooky themselves. Immediately, we picture stiffly postured, white, tattered linen dressed bodies coming out of coffins. Pop culture has not been kind to the bulk of this ancient Egyptian practice.

Once we remove the veil of modern entertainment, however, we are left with a complex corpus of material…