OBSEQUIES OF A HERO.

A fragment of archaic painted ware found by Mr. Petrie in the ruins of the palace-fort of Psammetichus I.
at Daphn, in the Eastern Delta, is decorated with the following figure of a Greek dancing-girl. Now,
Daphn was founded by this Pharaoh for the accommodation of his Carian and Ionian mercenary troops
about the middle of the seventh century before our era, and the place was abandoned ninety years later, in
the reign of Amasis II. We have [Page 89] therefore a sufficiently accurate date for this design of a
dancing-woman; that is to say, we may take it for granted that the Greek colonists who settled in the
neighborhood of the camp would scarcely have built their town, and developed their trades as potters and
goldsmiths, until at least a decade had elapsed. Consequently, this product of their industry would fall
within the strict limit of eighty years. Our Greeks had by this time much improved in their treatment of
the human figure. But for the old false drawing of the frontwise eye in the profile face, the features are
naturally given. And it is a thoroughly Greek face, which is very interesting. The fillet, the ear-ring, and
the long side-curl are all characteristic of archaic Greek costume. The figure has, however, all the
Egyptian conventionalities grossly exaggerated, the body being shown frontwise to the waist, while the
legs and feet are placed sidewise, the breadth of the shoulders and the length of the arms being
ludicrously out of proportion.

PORTRAITS
Mummy portrait of a woman with a ringlet hairstyle.Royal Museum of Scotland.
Pliny complained of the declining state of Roman portrait art, "The painting of portraits which used to
transmit through the ages the accurate likenesses of people, has entirely gone out ... Indolence has
destroyed the arts."
[19]

In Greece and Rome, wall painting was not considered as high art. The most prestigious form of art
besides sculpture was panel painting, i.e. tempera orencaustic painting on wooden panels. Unfortunately,
since wood is a perishable material, only a very few examples of such paintings have survived, namely
theSeveran Tondo from c. 200 AD, a very routine official portrait from some provincial government office,
and the well-known Fayum mummy portraits, all from Roman Egypt, and almost certainly not of the
highest contemporary quality. The portraits were attached to burial mummies at the face, from which
almost all have now been detached. They usually depict a single person, showing the head, or head and
upper chest, viewed frontally. The background is always monochrome, sometimes with decorative
elements.
[20]
In terms of artistic tradition, the images clearly derive more from Greco-Roman traditions
than Egyptian ones. They are remarkably realistic, though variable in artistic quality, and may indicate the
similar art which was widespread elsewhere but did not survive. A few portraits painted on glass and
medals from the later empire have survived, as have coin portraits, some of which are considered very
realistic as well.
[21]