The Fayum mummy portraits are the most outstanding body of paintings that still survive from the ancient world. The portraits on the Egyptian mummies are Greek but mostly date to the Roman period.
The hairstyles, clothing and jewellery of the figures in the portraits are undoubtedly Graeco-Roman, in the Hellenistic tradition. Their roots lie with certainty in the art school of Alexandria, and more than a thousand of these mummy portraits have been discovered to date.
The Fayum district lies west of the Nile some 60 km from Cairo in Egypt. The Greek and Hellenized inhabitants of the fertile area buried their dead on the high ground where the depression meets the desert so that the flood waters of the Nile could not reach them.
Here and elsewhere in Egypt, the dead who were wealthy enough were mummified and provided with a painted portrait (presumably of themselves). This portrait was painted either on a thin panel of wood or on a shroud fixed over the face. The inhabitants of the region continued this practice for over 300 years.
