Fayum Portraits
/ˈfaɪ.juːm ˈpɔːr.trəts/noun
Realistic funerary portraits from Roman Egypt, especially those discovered in the Faiyum region and painted on wooden panels attached to mummies.
Did you know?Many portraits were painted in encaustic wax, a technique that preserved astonishingly vivid eyes, hair, and skin tones across nearly two millennia.
Etymological Timeline
Ancient Egyptian period
Egyptian
pꜣ-y-m
“A proposed ancient Egyptian source meaning “the Lake” or referring to the lake region; the exact linguistic development is debated.”
Ptolemaic period
Greek
Arsinoítēs
“The Greek name for the Faiyum administrative district, associated with the city of Arsinoe.”
Late Antiquity
Coptic
Phiom
“The Coptic name for the Faiyum region, commonly connected with an Egyptian expression meaning “the Lake.””
Medieval period
Arabic
al-Fayyūm
“The Arabic name for the Egyptian oasis and agricultural basin.”
12th–13th Century
Old French
portrait
“An image or likeness, from portraire, “to portray” or “to depict.””
16th Century
English
portrait
“A painted or drawn likeness of a person, adopted from French.”
Late 19th–20th Century
English
Fayum portraits
“The modern art-historical term for mummy portraits, especially those excavated at sites in Egypt’s Faiyum region.”