One year ago, we had our last cultural visit before Buffalo closed down for Covid-19. Our destination, the Buffalo Museum of Science, to see the Golden Mummies of Egypt. These are not mummies from the time of pyramids. But instead, more modern mummies from the time of Alexander the Great through the later Roman rule. A period of 600 years (300 BCE to 300 CE with Cleopatra and Mark Anthony at mid-point) when Greeks and Romans or their surrogates ruled.

The Egyptians decorated these mummy cases with encaustic paintings of beeswax and pigment. The Greeks developed this decorative technique for their ships. They waterproofed their ships with wax and resin. By adding coloring to the mix, they created encaustic decoration. Next time you imagine the ships Helen launched, think color.

I used my then-new iPhone 11 pro with portrait mode to capture the exhibition’s treasures. I am uncertain how the phone’s camera works. But it appears to track its subject and integrate the image, removing effects of the photographer’s shaking hand. It did a fantastic job of capturing images of the exhibition’s objects in low light and behind glass. Here are the results.

Artists continue to use the encaustic technique today. Click here for examples from the Albright-Knox Art Museum, Buffalo New York. Or here for a larger collection of encaustic art in New York City.