Posted on 05/26/2018 12:37:38 PM PDT by mairdie
Egyptian Fayum Portraits of the Ptolemaic Period - 332-30 BC. To music from Michael Atherton's album "Ankh - The Sound of Ancient Egypt."
The Ptolemaic Kingdom was founded by Ptolemy and ended with the death of Cleopatra VII and the Roman conquest in 30 BC.
Fayum portraits were painted on wooden panels and mounted into the bands of cloth of a mummy so that they showed over the face area. They were either done in encaustic (wax) or in tempera. There have been around 900 portraits found, often still retaining their bright colors.
PING
Thank you
My deepest pleasure, null but never void.
Gee, I thought the Egyptians were black. That’s what they teach you in politically corrected public high school.
Egypt kept conquering Nubia and it was common to bring hostages to Egypt, where they were raised with foster families. Some intermarried. There was also large scale trade between the countries leading to more intermarriages with races outside Egypt proper. So there are many ancient Egyptians depicted with black features, and many more without.
Interesting. All the portraits are of people who are recognizably contemporary middle easterners.
The next utube has some statues of Ramses II who ruled 1000 years earlier. He looks like the pillsbury doughboy. ie not middle eastern at all.
The Ptolemies were Greek. I believe the DNA of ancient Egyptians shows less sub-Saharan ancestry than current Egyptians!
Hmm! The eyes are amazing. Thx for the ping.
I did that video, too. Went back and looked and don’t see anything LIKE the doughboy in Ramsses II. Actually, I wouldn’t have minded dating him back in my college days. Now Ahmose I, I’ll agree with you. I looked for a better statue of him but couldn’t find one. It was pretty common that the pharaoh that followed did in the art of the preceding to keep them from their hopes for eternity. Poor Ahmose must have really ticked off somebody.
Obviously I skipped a lot of portraits - tThe ones that had artists that looked like they'd been influenced by Tintoretto, or Modigliani, or the modern art piece that made you want to shove his eye back to the right place.
Yes, there’s a stroke going on with that one, ha.
If we want Picasso, we’ll look at Picasso!
Thank you so much for keeping on with your Fine Arts series !
One learns something (s) new from every one.
The fact that the Egyptians painted at this level is in such contrast from the stone carvings found in royal tombs. While the quality of the craftsmanship is exquisite the faces were always done in profile, and to me did not come close to these in reveling the humanity of the subjects.
I can’t draw a stick figure to save my life. I find the ability of artists to actually capture portraits, or for that matter any realist subject to be nothing short of miraculous.
I think the Hyksos invasion introduced a lot of foreign blood. They were a Semitic people.
Beautiful. Thank you for posting.
Thank YOU for watching. Much appreciated.
Race meant nothing to Egyptians. As long as you worshiped one of Egypt’s 3,000 Gods, Drank from the Nile, spoke Copt (the Language of Egypt), and liked cats—you were OK. They were mixed race people—Some white, some black most brown. They would see our racial focus as silly and foolish. They even managed to convince Nubia that they too were Egyptians and they fought to help their Egyptian Brothers. This treaty opened up all the wealth of Africa into Egypt—and sent Egyptian ideas and culture into Africa. The Masai of Kenya still use the Egyptian water well to water their cattle.
The two statues I was thinking of Ramses II were at
11:21/12:30 and 11:24/12:30
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05kSpcfUCyI&index=2&list=PLYTtL1FB2XCq0H0Lat5EHhguwg2tnp4rR
Ptolemy was the half brother of Alexander the Great. They were Macedonian or northern Greek.
Thank you for posting that link. Great video.
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