About a thousand of these exist and we’ve only seen a handful. I wish there were a museum exhibit somewhere that we could visit to see them all in person or at least a database somewhere which we could peruse. I’ve seen 5 in Detroit and 3 recently in Budapest, one of them being of an older lady with grey hair and no jewelry. All seem incredibly “alive” when seen up close and personal. 17.07 is exquisite.

Great lecture, really enjoyed it! My only disagreement is that you can absolutely paint in Encaustic with a brush. I do, all the time.

Greenish background is not a distemper but a green gesso - ground known in egypt in variety of types and colours. On this ground (used through centuries untill today) painter put several thin layers of semitransparent paint. Egg tempera on wood is never made of egg white but of egg yolk. Egg yolk after several months of drying becomes - the same as beeswax - waterproof (what not happens to egg white) what among other factors caused these portraits to survive.

Spell bound! No word! What a incredible realistic picture!! Highly sofisticated society! Great! Let's pray for the victims!

GREAT ART GREAT CONFERENCE

These photo-realistic portraits and their incredible preservation are just breathtaking. Real masterpieces from ancient artisans. It took the West much more than 1000 years to re-discover and re-achieve this mastery in art. (And another 100 years to dissolve and degenerate into “modern art”). Thanks a lot for the fascinating presentation.

This is so freaky, these people are so lifelike but lived during the reign of emperor Augustus, this really humanizes the people back then, especially because their hairstyles are so much like we have today.

Thank you for this video

great lecture! thanks

Never seen these before. AWESOME ART WORK! Thank you..

Incredible YT content, thank you

Well presented! Thanks!

Thank you for this lecture.

I love to draw portraits like these... I'm art student...

Some of these look like modern people playing dress up. Incredible.

13:45 Actually Christianity continued the tradition of the Fayoum portraits. The Coptic Christians used the style to make the first Coptic icons.

It’s all about setting the play speed at 1.25.

The woman @48:45 is so incredibly captivating. At first glance you see a somewhat “flat” portrait. Her big dark eyes staring into yours. Now lean back and squint…

Me enamoré de la mirada y la boca del joven de barba bien cuidada, es solo Miles de años mayor que yo, pero la edad no importa

Fayoum portraits in Egypt

How can get a few questions answered on this fascinating topic?

6:04 She could be a movie star

It's good he calls these paintings Roman and not Egyptian, since when they dig up the Mummies they call the Egyptian mummies.

These people wrote Greek had Greek names, but all I here is Roman and Egyptian. Greeks are too good to remain Greek

liked it.... a lot of uuhhh.s tho........, especially in the begining of part one...., stil i liked it. greetings bibia

They all look sad

It's a good thing that he calls these Roman or Roman Egyptian and NOT EGYPTIAN.

Erroneous surprise by the narrator about the painter being paid in wine. Wine was the perfect currency, it was valuable, lasted long, it was a liquid currency (no pun intended) as it could easily be exchanged for other goods, it could be split in smaller parts for smaller change, it was a fine currency except for the volume and weight, but that was a minor problem where the painter and the customers where all local. A painter got paid in wine could simply go to the market and sell it in parts for the goods he needed. Today we have a much worse system where a parasite minority of banksters control the printing of paper currency out of thin air and illegitimately charge a % interest. This creates all sorts of problem such as financing by debt and the very destruction of the environment due to this 'limitless' supply not being backed by real material ressource. This is actually the biggest problem of contemporary society and the source of most society evil, including wars, destruction of the environment, financial bail out of banks charged to the tax revenues paid by people, etc..

I see real photo of people who lived almost 2.000 years ago

Thay defonte know what is 3d painting

its ancient Egyptian face and egyptian save thier body after die and Roman fire thier body after die

Interesting. Speaker sounds like he's trying to speak through a nervous breakdown. I hope that wasn't the case!

The beautiful Mediterranean type, and the Anglosaxon people were considered inferior by the tanned Mediterranean people!

The title should be corrected to Egyptian mummies during the “Roman era” or “Greco-Roman era.

The guys at 12:06, 43:56, and 48:53 are pretty fetching, as are the ladies at 12:35 and 50:03. Lurid observations aside, a few points: 1. Romans, Egyptian or otherwise in residence, didn't typically die in their 30s or 40s if they made it past the age of 12. So the ridiculous statement, especially with respect to those wealthy enough to afford a sarcophagus and a fancy high class portrait that even today would cost a good deal, that life expectancy was the reason for the subjects' youth is not credible. Textual and statuary sources show that patricians and the mercantile middle lived well past 40 and usually kicked the bucket in the late 50s or mid 60s. 2. I don't trust strict stylistic methods of dating. As we can find today occasional examples of strict High-Modernist architecture in line with a style from the late 1950s being newly built - and certainly this is true of painting, where certain retro pieces are stylistically indistinguishable from original forebears - so also there are estuarial periods at every point in history, where pieces characteristic of a previously dominant style are newly made in an era where new styles are more prevelant. There are also immaculate forgeries that have fooled even the best stylistic experts. For this reason, we must rely more and more on molecular analysis, as such methods become more refined. 3. It is not surprising that payment in wine might be accepted. Just as merchants in Pennsylvania traded in Whiskey as a hedge against rampant inflation at the end of the 18th century, so also wine might be a better bet in certain periods than denarii when wanting a store of value that could fetch key goods no matter where you went in the Empire. Lastly, maybe that was true of lower-tier artists but the good ones likely took only gold, if free citizens.

Porke la información la hacen en inglés y no en español

Hmmm looks like EVERY single one of these has Japanese anime doll eyes

Greeks of egypt.roman period. El fayum. Egypt.

It is the racism in classical studies that the classical scholars are desperate to keep Egypt out of the classical world, because Egypt is in Africa.

Not Egyptian? How does one with so much education come to such a bewildering conclusion I wonder. Not in what we'd call the Pharonic style certainly. But if they're painted in Egypt by Egyptians, and the faces are those of Egyptians, then how can you say they're not Egyptian? In short, the lecture is indeed interesting but the title is all wrong. It feels like a deep seated bias of some sort.

These are Egyptian traditions. The Romans burned their dead , Egyptians were the ones obcessed with the afterlife.

You call them Roman , when it's obvious , even by their names that they are Greek.......

Why would a greek or Roman follow the Egyptian religion 🤔?

The dark ages were not dark

Roman? you must be kidding me how come similar portraits never been found in Rome or Greece or anywhere in Europe? Western people and academics will you please get over yourselves!!!

Shalom, please Google black European royalty.

Nothing roman on it.

those are egyptian, not romain buddy....shame on you tho

Supernaturally boring rendition of what might have been a fascinating subject, but comes across more like a hostage video. Was the poor speaker drafted into Egyptology against his will? Could he display more reluctance or lack of enthusiasm? He should have chosen some other vocation. Birrell gives us half of what is to be obtained from a Wikipedia article in twice the time. Clearly he knows as much about art as he does public speaking, but its the students for whom I feel the most sorrow. Imagine having to pay to listen to this. Very ummmm interesting!