Fayum

My portraits are a contemporary reference to Fayum , ( is the modern term given to a type of naturalistic portraits painted on wooden boards attached to Egyptians mummies. They probably date from c. 30 BC to the 3rd century.) To the modern eye, the portraits appear highly individualistic. Therefore, it has been assumed for a long time that they were produced during the lifetime of their subjects and displayed as "salon paintings" within their houses, to be added to their mummy wrapping after their death. Newer research rather suggests that they were only painted after death . The patrons of the portraits apparently belonged to the affluent upper class . Not everyone could afford a mummy portrait; many mummies were found without one. But there is more to the mummy portraits than that. They are, for one thing, soulful, in a literal as well as a colloquial sense, for these are images that were specifically designed to accompany their owners into the afterlife.