Figure 1
(a) Color image of the Fayum painting “Portrait of a woman”, c. 2nd century AD, accession number 1956.12.1, gift of Lewis Einstein, in the collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, depicting a female figure from a noble family as conveyed by the hairstyle and jewelry (dimensions: 34.6 × 11.5 cm). Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington; (b) Detail of the painting, illustrating different application methods of the heated wax-based paint resulting in distinct surface topography, most likely using three different tools as described by Pliny11: a fine painter’s brush or penicillus (1), a cauterium (a metal spoon or hollowed spatula) (2), and a cestrum (a type of engraver) (3).
