Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Uncover Hidden Histories With Fayum Art

By Kelsey Benson


Some individuals will view fayum art pieces and never realize the history that the painting contains. For people who are familiar with the life and times of the model posed in the painting, the history is all too familiar but families want the image to be memorable. Without family members though, the history lesson will be left unfinished and never related to others, no matter how much time has passed.

This style of art will typically represent a view of an individual from head to shoulders. Families can relate facts such as height and weight and what type of life the person lived and tales that were told can be retold to future generations. The artist has the freedom of capturing facial expressions in a manner that best depicts the model. Some faces will hold a stare that will stop you in your steps, and other paintings will capture the whimsical manner in which the person expressed feelings.

Some people will gather to view the painting while attending the funeral, wake or entombment ceremonies. A relative of the paintings model would be able to explain the curious marks found on the face, or other traits that would stand out boldly in each sketched outline. Other people will view the paintings and feel connected to the individual for some odd, unexplained reason. Some will connect these odd feelings to facts many years after the individual has passed on.

Some models will realize how poses will be perceived after they die and will want to capture a specific look or pose. These images will one day be posted at a grave site as a tribute to the deceased, or the model knows that it will serve as a way of identifying the body when it is mummified and placed in a tomb for all time.

People will discover the treasured images and be shocked by some of the expressions that are formed on the faces. The weathered canvas that each image is painted on will reveal the persons character lines in several years time. This style of funeral tribute has been in practice in many foreign countries, and in places where mummification of loved ones was common practice, such as Egypt, and throughout the Roman Empire.

The painted poses will also serve as an identification tag when multiple bodies are to be placed within one burial chamber. The art forms are often included in the wrappings placed around a mummy or in a body cavity that is close to where the heart was located before the mummification process was completed. The art style is named after a refreshing oasis named Al-Fayyum.

Many people are interested in retrieving as many of these artful treasures as possible to preserve historical facts. These paintings are highly decorative and full of color and many collectors choose to preserve this art style because it is a tribute to someone who lived long ago. Auction houses receive many inquiries about funeral masks and sales occur often by those wanting to complete a personal collection.

These expressions exposed in fayum art are painstakingly captured by artists using various mixtures of tempera paints and beeswax, which in a liquid state, creates a painters medium that is waterproof and long lasting. These funeral boards will help families track histories long after a loved one dies.




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