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(More customer reviews)This exhibition is a facinating personal document of the Roman mummy portraits and their Egyptian and greek influenced hybrid artworks. The incredible freshness of the works themselves is lost in the printing here. Perhaps the encaustic is difficult to photograph? Anyway the topic and text is wonderful, but the images pale next to the 1st person experience of these vital energizing works of the Roman era.A good book to own, if you saw the show it's better.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Ancient Faces : Mummy Portraits in Roman Egypt (Metropolitan Museum of Art Publications)
Dating from the later period of Roman rule in Egypt, shortly before the birth of Christ, the painted mummy portraits are among the most remarkable products of the ancient world, a fusion of the traditions of pharonic Egypt and the Classical world. They are historical and cultural objects of outstanding importance and beauty, superb works of art that represent some of the earliest known examples of life-like portraiture. Though the subjects of the portraits believed in the traditional Egyptian cults, which offered them a firm prospect of life after death, they also wished to be commemorated in the Roman manner, with their fashion of dress and adornment signaling their status in life. Despite their ancient history, these portraits speak to the modern eye with a beauty and intensity that would be lost to portraiture until the Renaissance.
