The exhibition is made possible in part by The Andrew W. Ancient Faces: Mummy Portraits from Roman Egypt will open to the public on February 15.
These rare and fragile works, including the Metropolitan's entire collection of mummy portraits, will not travel as a group to any other venue.Īlso on view will be a range of objects - including jewelry, papyri, sculpture, and wrapped mummies - illustrating the culture and funerary customs of the time. More than 70 of the finest mummy portraits from European and North American collections will be on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art this spring in Ancient Faces: Mummy Portraits from Roman Egypt. Stylistically related to the tradition of Greco-Roman painting, but created for a typically Egyptian purpose - inclusion in the funerary trappings of mummies - these are startlingly realistic portraits of men and women of all ages. February 15 - Special Exhibition Galleries, Second FloorĮarly European Interest in Mummy Portraitsĭuring the first through the third century A.D., a unique art form - the mummy portrait - flourished in Roman Egypt.
