<p>AN elegant woman gazes out from her portrait with expressive eyes, a gilded wreath worn in her hair and a gentle, questioning look on her face.
Key takeaways
The "Faces of Fayum" exhibition in Rome showcases 2,000‑year‑old mummy portraits, wooden panels painted in the first to third centuries AD, alongside mummies, masks, and other artifacts, marking the first time many pieces leave Egypt.
- The portraits depict realistic faces of mummies and are painted on thin wooden panels from the Roman period.
- The exhibition, titled "Egypt and Rome, the Faces of Fayum," opens at Rome's Ara Pacis museum and includes mummies, masks, jewellery, and marble busts.
- Claudio Parisi Presicce praised the portraits as an "absolute masterpiece" and highlighted their naturalistic depiction of buried individuals.
Summarised automatically by AI from the original article by New Straits Times. AI can make mistakes, so check the original for details.
AN elegant woman gazes out from her portrait with expressive eyes, a gilded wreath worn in her hair and a gentle, questioning look on her face.
She is one of the 2,000-year-old "Faces of Fayum", startlingly realistic funerary – or mummy – portraits painted after Egypt became part of the Roman empire.
The fragile portraits dating from the first to third centuries AD – painted on thin wooden panels and designed to be placed over the face of mummies – will go on display in Rome in what organisers hail as a "milestone" collaboration between Italy and Egypt.
"Egypt and Rome, the Faces of Fayum", opening Wednesday at Rome's Ara Pacis museum, also includes mummies, masks, shrouds, jewellery, marble busts and statuary.
