Portrait painting is a tradition that extends to the present day and has its own continuity. When we try to understand why humankind commissions portraits, the first thing that comes to mind might be the desire for "immortality." This may indeed be the case; we can extend the traces of this desire for immortality to today's selfie/selfie habit. The human desire for immortality inevitably determines our actions. Our actions, in turn, determine our consciousness, and indeed, human history is written through conscious actions.
A direct link can be established between the portrait tradition and humanity's way of coping with death, and Fayum portraits are a good example of this. Fayum (or Fayyum, both spellings appear in sources) portraits take their name from a city in Egypt. The creation of these portraits dates back to the Roman period, between the 1st and 3rd centuries. Examples can currently be seen in various museums, including the Louvre in Paris, the Altes Museum in Berlin, and the Metropolitan Museum in New York.
These are, as far as is known, the first portraits ever made. They are particularly significant because they depict ordinary people. Ordinary people are those engaged in various professions; that is, those outside of kings and emperors, such as merchants, soldiers, and athletes. The fact that portraits are not found in every mummy casket shows that commissioning portraits was not a cheap undertaking. We will need to approach modern times for artists to become free to depict people of insignificant identities in their paintings. Nevertheless, the fact that portraits of people from within society were depicted so early, apart from those representing power, is striking.
The Fayum portraits mark the beginning of the immortalization of humans through portraiture. As Berger beautifully describes it, "They were showing the identity of the dead on their journey to the Kingdom of Osiris with the jackal-headed god Anubis, like passport photos" (1). In fact, as an extension of the mummification tradition, they were made for the purpose of life in the world of the dead after life on Earth, in other words, eternal life. These portraits, painted on wooden panels, were placed on the faces of the wrapped mummies and, after the identification information was added to the sealed sarcophagus, were placed in the burial chamber. This was a visual and written addressing to ensure the soul found its correct body.
The portraits are a complete hybrid in terms of content and form. This is because there was no tradition in Egypt of portraits being painted from the front rather than in profile, and in a realistic (in the naturalist sense) style. The Greeks who settled in Egypt after Alexander's conquest carried on this tradition. Certain primary colors are used in the paintings. Due to the technique used, such as mixing paint with wax and tempera, it is still possible to see the brushstrokes. Alongside the brushstrokes, which we could almost call impressionistic, the liveliness conveyed by the gazes in the portraits makes them feel as if they belong to our time. They are so current (perhaps even contemporary) that we wouldn't be surprised to see them at this year's biennale. An important reason for this lies in the purpose for which the paintings were created. We know that centuries later, the noble class will also commission portraits from painters to be remembered, or in other words, to leave an eternal image. On the other hand, the eternity defined by the noble class and the bourgeoisie will emphasize the past even at the moment the portrait is taken. A king on horseback, with the backdrop of the battle he launched for conquest, to be remembered for the glorious years of his power; a queen who immortalizes all her power and beauty forever; nobles with happy and healthy family portraits; they all wanted to leave a trace of themselves in a state where they wished to be seen for eternal remembrance. Remembering is an action directed towards the past. The future, however, is not remembered, it is imagined. Therefore, in most of the portraits we are accustomed to, we see the expression of a dead person from the moment it is taken.
Can we say that selfie portraits in our time are different? Behind similar gazes and smiles, different identities become blurred and indistinguishable as they merge, and contrary to the expected result of an action taken with the aim of permanence, they disperse like dust and disappear the moment the photograph is taken. However, in Fayoum portraits, the people who had their portraits taken were creating their own "passports" for the future, the "identities" that would introduce them at the beginning of eternal life. That's why the gazes in the portraits are so vivid. They're still looking at us…
(1) Berger, John. 2018. “Portraits” (Translated by Beril Eyüboğlu). Metis Publications, Istanbul
Author: Fide Lale Durak