Portraits funéraires de l'Égypte romaine, Tome II, Cartonnages

Written in French

This catalog presents funerary portraits from Roman Egypt painted on canvas, wood, and cardboard, and complements the first volume, published in 2004, devoted to stucco masks. The Louvre Museum has a rich and varied collection, ranging from full-length portraits depicted on a shroud almost three meters high to sketches on a mummy label measuring around ten centimeters.

Diversity characterizes not only the formats, materials, and pictorial and graphic styles, but also, and above all, the portraits of the deceased themselves, each of which is unique.

Various chapters precede the eighty-three entries that make up the catalog: an introduction that shows how the works are rooted in the pharaonic funerary tradition, a history of the collection, the identification of the types of wood and pigments used for the so-called "Fayum" portraits, and a study of the Greek and Demotic inscriptions.