These mummy portraits, akin to a time capsule, were initially uncovered in the Fayum Basin, a desert oasis located south of Cairo. They provide a unique glimpse into the lives of individuals who walked the earth over two millennia ago. These works marked the burials of men, women and children from the upper classes of Ptolemaic Egypt. Preserved by the region's warm, arid climate, their lifelike style suggests a function similar to that of modern photographs: to capture the deceased as they appeared in life.
Take, for example, "Portrait L," also known as "Portrait of a Woman with Pearl Earrings and Emerald Necklace." Her social status is evident, not only in her makeup—charcoal eyeliner and lips tinged with red—but also in her clothing and jewelry, made from costly materials imported from other Mediterranean regions.
She dons a lavender tunic dyed with rose madder, a pigment derived from the plant Rubia tinctorum. Even more opulent is her purple mantle, a hue produced from the mucus of a specific mollusk endemic to the Lebanese coast. Her gold earrings and necklaces were likely crafted from melted aurei, a form of Roman currency. The emerald gemstones presumably originate from the Emerald Mountains along the Red Sea coast, while her sizable pearls likely came from the Persian Gulf.
It is said that the Fayum portraits, in general, inspired Oscar Wilde's "The Picture of Dorian Gray," a novel centered on a man whose soul becomes inexplicably entwined with a painting.
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