Fayum Boy

I’m sure many of you have heard of and been fascinated by the Fayum portraits in the same way I have been over the years. Here I’ve chosen to work from one of my favorites, of what looks to be a young man or teenage boy. It really makes you wonder how he died and what his story was. For those of you who have never seen these pieces of art, the Fayum Mummy Portraits are a series of hundreds of portraits of anonymous individuals painted during the Roman Egyptian period. They are painted in a naturalistic style directly on a panel that was attached to the coffins of the dead. The portraits were made as an artistic tradition in Fayum, an oasis region 150 miles south of Alexandria in Egypt between the 1st Century BCE and the 1st Century AD. The Fayum portraits as a whole are intriguing because of their naturalistic qualities and lifelike appearance, each a portrait of the deceased individual. They do include some stylizations which I tried to correct for in my version here, but overall their appearances are very unique and natural. The style derives heavily from Greco-Roman art traditions. It’s such a fascinating combustion of cultures and art styles. I think I may do a few more of these, as I enjoyed making this one very much.

This image & much more are available in the Etsy store! 

Etsy.com/Shop/RoyaltyNow.Left Portrait base: Public Domain of the United States, Courtesy of the Walters Art Museum. Right Portrait base: iStock Photo. Created using Photoshop and Art Breeder.

Process Video: