Explore the Faces of Ancient Roman Egypt in Getty’s New Volume on Mummy Portraits
This open-access publication brings together global expertise and groundbreaking research to scholars and the public worldwide
Mummy Portraits of Roman Egypt, Volume 2
Emerging Research from the APPEAR ProjectAuthors
Marie Svoboda, Caroline Cartwright
Body Content
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 2,000 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 in a shared database. APPEAR began as a study of 16 panel paintings in the Getty collection and has now grown to encompass a third of the panel paintings residing in more than 60 museums and collections. This current volume—the proceedings from the 2022 APPEAR conference, held at the Allard Pierson Museum in Amsterdam—presents the results of nine years of international partnerships and complements the first published volume, Mummy Portraits of Roman Egypt: Emerging Research from the APPEAR Project.
This second volume of Mummy Portraits of Roman Egypt (J. Paul Getty Museum, FREE) compiles 17 scholarly papers from the 2022 APPEAR conference. Conservators, scientists, and curators presented new research on topics such as technical imaging; nondestructive analytical techniques; provenance and collecting; treatment histories; connoisseurship and forgeries; comparisons of works across institutions; and scientific studies of woods, pigments, coatings, binders, and supports. This volume will be a valuable resource to conservators, scientists, curators, and collectors.
The free online edition of this open-access publication includes zoomable illustrations and graphs. Also available are free PDF and EPUB downloads of the book.
Endorsements
“The second volume of "Mummy Portraits of Roman Egypt" yields further rich insights into the research of the international, interdisciplinary collaboration that underpins the APPEAR project and this publication. The breadth and depth of articles—whether from the perspective of Egyptology, conservation, scientific study, or the history of collecting—reflect the expertise and scholarship of their contributors. The volume is generously illustrated and easily navigable, making clever, intuitive use of the interactive possibilities of the online publication.”
— Dr. David Saunders, Honorary Research Fellow, British Museum, and Honorary Researcher, National Gallery, London
Mummy Portraits of Roman Egypt, Volume 2
Emerging Research from the APPEAR ProjectFREE
