Mummy Portraits
The mummy portraits are stunning, with production beginning around 30-40 CE, sixty years after the defeat of Antony.
Examples include portraits of an unknown woman (c.160-70) and a boy called Eutyches (c.100-150).
Discovery and Display
The Annual Report of the Director of the National Gallery for 1888 announced the display of three painted wooden panels, almost two thousand years old, unearthed from Roman-period cemeteries in Hawara, Egypt.
These panels had been placed over the faces of mummies and integrated into their wrappings before being exhibited at the National Gallery and the Egyptian Hall on Piccadilly.
They had overlooked a crowded display of complete mummies and other finds from the Fayum.
Author's summary: Ancient mummy portraits discovered in Egypt.