https://ancientrome.org/tags/fayum-portraits/ Recent content in Fayum Portraits on Ancient Rome Hugo en-us Tue, 05 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://ancientrome.org/the-fayum-portraits-faces-from-the-edge-of-the-roman-world/ Tue, 05 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://ancientrome.org/the-fayum-portraits-faces-from-the-edge-of-the-roman-world/ <p>In a case in the Altes Museum in Berlin, ten painted wooden panels are arranged across two shelves: five on the upper row, five below. They show men, women, and children. The youngest is perhaps eight or nine years old. The oldest appears to be in his fifties, though age is difficult to assess with confidence from encaustic wax portraits of the first through third centuries AD. What is not difficult to assess is the gaze. Every one of these faces looks directly out of the panel, directly at whoever is standing in front of the case, with the same frontal directness. They were painted to look at you. Eighteen centuries later they still do, and the effect has not diminished.</p>