Mysterious Fayum Portraits [Hardcover]

Euphrosyne Doxiadis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 15, 1995

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, artistic and geographical context, and describes the artistic techniques used in their creation.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The Fayum, a flourishing metropolitan community in ancient Egypt, consisted of Greeks, Egyptians, Syrians, Libyans, and others. Like many of their contemporaries throughout the Nile Valley, these people embalmed their dead and then painted commemorative portraits of them, usually on wood or linen, to be placed over the mummies. Looking into the well-preserved, startlingly lifelike faces collected in this beautiful volume, one can trace the earliest roots of portraiture as it began in these Greco-Roman Fayum, or mummy, portraits, and continued through the Renaissance to the present. Despite their ancient history, the stylized portraits appear strikingly modern and painterly, with echoes of Modigliani and Matisse. Having experimented with them herself, Euphrosyne Doxiadis describes in detail the painting techniques and materials. Also included are fascinating notes on the clothing, jewelry, and hairstyles of the period.

From Publishers Weekly

Made in the lush Fayum region of Greco-Roman Egypt during the first three centuries A.D., portraits of the embalmed, mummified dead-each painted on a thin wooden panel or linen shroud and placed over the face to preserve the memory of the individual-are among the glories of world art. Staring at us with intense, disturbing gazes, these men and women speak to us as if from the otherworld, transcending mortality and death. Greek artist Doxiadis, who traveled to museums and collections around the world to study the Fayum portraits, has produced an important and beautiful volume that fills a major gap in the documentation of the art of antiquity. She reconstructs the Fayum painters' techniques and places the portraits in a pictorial tradition extending from fourth-century B.C. Greek naturalism to Byzantine icons. We see the Fayum portraits as the product of a cosmopolitan, multiracial society of Hellenized Greeks, Romans, Syrians, Jews, Libyans and Nubians who had largely adopted the Egyptian cult of the dead.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams; First American Edition edition (October 15, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810933314
• ISBN-13: 978-0810933316
• Product Dimensions: 13 x 9.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #260,730 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #43 in Books > Arts & Photography > Painting > Portraits
  • #77 in Books > Arts & Photography > Schools, Periods & Styles > Ancient & Classical

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful art book on the first great portrait painters., June 29, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Mysterious Fayum Portraits (Hardcover)

This is a beautiful book for anyone interested in Hellenistic Greek or Roman painting or portraits from any time. These are the first portraits in which the subjects look directly at us as we regard them. They are a haunting glimpse into the lives of people dead for 2000 years. This book is full of big color illustrations. Doxiadis does a fine job of tracing the history of the discovery, theories about, and conservation of these images.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Mysterious Fayum Portraits, November 2, 2006

By 

an artist (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mysterious Fayum Portraits (Hardcover)

I first saw this book in the Getty Villa reading room, and aquired it here at a nice discount. A art history book written by an artist, what a concept! This is a hauntingly beautiful book that invites the owner to open it again and transport themselves back several millenia. These paintings are so wonderful it is easy to understand how "the experts" thought them fakes when they first appeared! The text is almost as much a pleasure to read as the paintings are to view. Some of the paintings are surprisingly contemporary and possess much of what artists pride themselves in accomplishing during the last 125 years or so.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars this is MY Favorite book!, March 11, 2005

By 

john stein (Stockton Ca) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mysterious Fayum Portraits (Hardcover)

I checked this book out from the library so many times, that noone else got to read it. If you are an artist or someone who wants to work with past lives, or a novelist, this is the book for you.
for the portraits in this book, painted in Alexandria m during the Greek/roman period of Eygpt's history, are wonderful! The Writer analyses each painting from a painter's perspective , breaking down the colors and pigments used in those times, for instance black is often burnt wine. the illusion of Gold was made with yellow orche / white and a darker color. I tried painting many of the pictures myself.