The mystery of the Fayoum Portraits

Can you imagine that some of these portraits were painted using beeswax?

The history of the paintings:

Fayoum portraits are unique pieces of art, they belong to the Greco-Roman era in Al Fayoum.

These astonishing portraits are painted on thin wooden panels, they depict the entire detailed face of the owner and were believed to be painted during the owner’s life to be displayed in his/her home then attached later to the owner’s mummy after his/her death.

The technique:

Some are painted in tempra and others in encaustic (wax). They were painted using thick, fine brushes or painting knives. The beautiful traces of the brush strokes can be seen on the portraits. 

The painters of these portraits must have been skilful to use wax as a painting medium since wax hardens so fast and needs to be applied carefully and quickly in order to obtain a plane painting layer. While the portraits painted using tempra technique have a less thick painting layer, it’s still difficult to differentiate between both techniques.

Who owned these paintings?

The actual nationality of both the owners and painters will remain a mystery, as some of these portraits got detached from their mummies and some weren’t signed with the owners’ names. Also the painters themselves never signed their pieces of arts. Talk about humble!