Mummy Portraits of Roman Egypt, Volume 2

Nearly a thousand funerary portraits from Roman Egypt, once interred with mummified remains, survive in museums around the world. These fascinating paintings offer the unparalleled opportunity for viewers to come face-to-face with people who lived and died some two thousand years ago.

The international collaboration known as APPEAR (Ancient Panel Paintings: Examination, Analysis, and Research) was launched in 2013 to promote the study of these objects and gather research findings into a shared database. This second volume of Mummy Portraits of Roman Egypt compiles seventeen scholarly papers from the APPEAR conference hosted in October 2022 at the Allard Pierson Museum, Amsterdam. Conservators, scientists, and curators presented new research on topics such as technical imaging; nondestructive analytical techniques like elemental mapping; provenance and collecting; treatment histories; connoisseurship and forgeries; comparisons of works across institutions; and scientific studies of woods, pigments, coatings, binders, and supports. Some of the artworks discussed in this publication had never before been systematically studied. With the most up-to-date information available about the production, function, and history of these painted remnants of the ancient world, this volume will be a valuable resource to conservators, scientists, curators, and collectors.