This boy is a 'Fayum portrait' brought back to life by Bert. Fayum portraits are portraits that were painted between 100 AD. and 300 AD. of Egyptian antiquity were made in the Roman-Egyptian city of Fayum. The portraits were placed in the tomb after the death of the person depicted with the mummy. Most of the more than 1,000 mummy portraits were found at Fayum, but some have been found in other places, such as Antinoopolis.
The people portrayed at the time (see the Youtube video on this site) were generally quite young and had many children. However, their lives were often threatened by various diseases. Life expectancy was very low in Egypt during this period. CAT scans in 2000 showed similarities between the age and sex of the mummies with those of the persons depicted, proving that the portraits had been painted recently at the time of death.
The question is whether Fayum portraits actually portrayed people as they really were. Studies by art historians have shown that the portraits usually have a sort of standard academic head, with a combination of standard haircuts, standard eyes and a standard nose. Moreover, it can be disputed whether critically ill people in certain cases still looked so vital. In some cases, however, it is believed that the painter attempted to represent the real person, often with jewellery.
The original Fayum portraits are made with encaustic technique, which means that they are made from very hot, pigmented beeswax on a wooden panel. Due to the dry heat in the desert city of Fayum, the portraits have survived to this day, but many have suffered the ravages of time.
The Fayum portraits show features of Roman, Byzantine and Coptic art. A kind of naturalism also seems to emerge in the paintings. Together with the frescoes from Macedonia, Pompeii and Herculaneum, the portraits are among the best-preserved paintings from antiquity.
Bert's Fayum portraits are painted with oil on a wooden panel. An original portrait is often chosen as the starting point, but changes have been made to essential parts (eyes, hair and jewellery) and, for example, in some portraits, gold foil has also been used.
