The Oldest Modernist Paintings
Two thousand years before Picasso, artists in Egypt painted some of the most arresting portraits in the history of art
- By Smithsonian Magazine
- Smithsonian magazine, February 2012, Subscribe
Today, nearly 1,000 Fayum paintings exist in collections in Egypt and at the Louvre, the British and Petrie museums in London, the Metropolitan and Brooklyn museums, the Getty in California and elsewhere. Gift of Edward S. Harkness, 1918 / Metropolitan Museum of Art; © The Trustees of The British Museum; © The Trustees of The British Museum / Art Resource, NY
Between 1887 and 1889, the British archaeologist W.M. Flinders Petrie turned his attention to the Fayum, a sprawling oasis region 150 miles south of Alexandria. Excavating a vast cemetery from the first and second centuries A.D., when imperial Rome ruled Egypt, he found scores of exquisite portraits executed on wood panels by anonymous artists, each one associated with a mummified body. Petrie eventually uncovered 150.
The images seem to allow us to gaze directly into the ancient world. “The Fayum portraits have an almost disturbing lifelike quality and intensity,” says Euphrosyne Doxiadis, an artist who lives in Athens and Paris and is the author of The Mysterious Fayum Portraits. “The illusion, when standing in front of them, is that of coming face to face with someone one has to answer to—someone real.”
By now, nearly 1,000 Fayum paintings exist in collections in Egypt and at the Louvre, the British and Petrie museums in London, the Metropolitan and Brooklyn museums, the Getty in California and elsewhere.
For decades, the portraits lingered in a sort of classification limbo, considered Egyptian by Greco-Roman scholars and Greco-Roman by Egyptians. But scholars increasingly appreciate the startlingly penetrating works, and are even studying them with noninvasive high-tech tools.
At the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek museum in Copenhagen, scientists recently used luminescence digital imaging to analyze one portrait of a woman. They documented extensive use of Egyptian blue, a copper-containing synthetic pigment, around the eyes, nose and mouth, perhaps to create shading, and mixed with red elsewhere on the skin, perhaps to enhance the illusion of flesh. “The effect of realism is crucial,” says the museum’s Rikke Therkildsen.
Stephen Quirke, an Egyptologist at the Petrie museum and a contributor to the museum’s 2007 catalog Living Images, says the Fayum paintings may be equated with those of an old master—only they’re about 1,500 years older.
Doxiadis has a similar view, saying the works’ artistic merit suggests that “the greats of the Renaissance and post-Renaissance, such as Titian and Rembrandt, had great predecessors in the ancient world.”
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Related topics: Painting Roman Empire
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Comments (35)
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Aside from their artistic aspects, I am interested in what these portraits might tell in the way of history. Specifically, if dated to circa 245 C.E., that puts them in the Greco-Roman-Egyptian (Pagan)era. But there is also the possibility of Judaism or some form of Christianity. Thus, I am curious about the supposed priest and that supposed 7-pointed star on his forehead. I wonder if anyone has any more specific information. I could not find any instance of a 7-pointed star being associated with an Egyptian or Greek religion of the time (Sol Invictus?) Also, it looks to me that that is not a 7-pointed star at all, but is instead a 6-pointed star with a central point at an angle to the surrounding 6 points. In other words, it could be a representation of the 6+1=7 symbolism of Judaism (as echoed by the Temple menorah and star of David).
Posted by Alan Barber on May 13,2012 | 08:26 PM
These paintings are wonderful! I did not know they even existed. I feel as if the people could just wake up, arise and speak to us. Maybe we could have more in depth coverage of the era and lifestyles of those who were honored by mummy art??
Posted by Joanna on April 24,2012 | 12:06 AM
Two thing struck me about these paintings.
Firstly, although they probably painted by different artists over and extended period of time, they all show their subjects with very large eyes.
Secondly, considering that the subjects were almost certainly dead at the time of painting (consider the youth of some), the life-like quality of the images is astonishing. The paucity of materials available to the artists of the time makes these works a wonder of human achievement.
Posted by Bill Daley on March 29,2012 | 08:05 AM
It is fo fascinating to look at these portraits,imagine the people behind them, fantasize about the lives they led... They look so real, would have been be awesome to ask them about the era they lived in.
Posted by Irina Cuellar on March 25,2012 | 04:40 PM
In reference to David H's comments, he seems to have upped the Smithsonian's mummy portrait dates by a few hundred years (he states 500AD, which actually predates the Islamic era). The latest portrait Smithsonian dates is from 245AD, long before the Islamic invasion of 640AD. Egyptians then would have been ruled by Rome, not the Islamic Empire.
These Egyptian portraits in Graeco-Roman style are so elegant and modern. How fortunate we are to have them, as an insight both into the late Egyptian period, and as an illustration of how pervasive the Roman culture was in the Egypt of that era.
Posted by Toni E on March 11,2012 | 05:41 PM
I read the article in the Smithsonian Magazine and had to search for it on a web site, to share.
The rough dates are sooo important for these images - I wish there was an estimated date on each target image, so they could better tied back to specific time periods to help the viewer reconstruct events. The dead tell a story.
The closest date provided in the article was about 1,500 years ago. This is circa conquering of the Coptic (Egyptian) people (formerly under the rule of the Eastern Roman Empire) to a militant Arab Islamic Invasion (from the Middle East.) Copts, initially passive to the invasion, were later forced to abandon modernist painting (modernist painting was illegal under Islamic Sharia Law), their language (the binding between Islam and Arabic language is nearly inseparable), art/history (with the burning of libraries in Alexandria), and many other aspects of their indigenous culture.
Without being able to build a context around the art, the value of this article and images diminish. Filling the historical gaps will be reasonably easy for my next class.
Posted by David H on March 3,2012 | 01:05 PM
I have always loved Ancient Egypt. To see these portraits of these people are amazing. In all of the portraits, I am immediately caught off guard on how the eyes are depicted. The artist gave the people emotions, which is very stunning. I feel that they have caught the essence of that persons character.
Posted by Raven Myst on March 1,2012 | 03:17 PM
These portraits are well detailed for being eighteen hundred years old.
Posted by cory b. on March 1,2012 | 03:16 PM
These pictures have a meaning, a purpose. A purpose of time, place and whereabouts, trust and loyalty, wisdom and faith. We weren't in this era of time, but, we get how they feel, express themselves just by a simple,yet, elegant painting.
Thanks for sharing
Posted by Chelsea McKindy on March 1,2012 | 03:06 PM
These Fayum's look very preserved and very beautiful.
Posted by Dalton on March 1,2012 | 03:06 PM
I'm surprised theses paintings lasted so long with the color, and the mummy pics look weird and cool!
Posted by Riley Morgan on March 1,2012 | 03:01 PM
These paintings are an interesting and amazing way to almost go back in time, and somehow imagine i glimpse of our own morality. The thousands and millions and billions of people who lived throughout time on earth are closer then ever with these chilling glimpses into the past.
Posted by Hudson Phillips on March 1,2012 | 03:01 PM
the portraits of these people don't look so different than the people living now. i'm actually surprised these paintings lasted so long. Its a wonderful thing that they were found, and hopefully they will put them on display and save them for the future. They can also be used for educational uses.
Posted by charlene on March 1,2012 | 03:00 PM
Woah! These paintings are so amazing. It's as if these were painted yesterday.
Posted by Scott Trenton on March 1,2012 | 02:59 PM
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