Roman portrait of man on mummy

Roman portrait of a man on a mummy from Egypt. Object dated to the 1st century CE and is currently in the Ipswich Museum (England). The painting belongs to the so-called groups of Fayum portraits.

Fayum portraits were realistic portraits made on wood that were placed next to Egyptian mummies from the Roman times. It was the so-called blackboard painting, which was extremely popular in ancient times. About 900 such paintings have survived to our times. The portraits were found mainly in cemeteries in the oasis of Fayoum (most were found in the Hawara necropolis) and the Roman cemetery in Antinoopolis.