They are 2 of my religious artworks. Well, some centuries after Jesus death, Christians needed to have some pictures of their God and the other Holy people. So they started to look for portraits of people who lived at the same time in the same area with Jesus, Mary, Jhon Baptist and the others close to describtions they had in the gospels and other holy books. So they used Fayoum and Pompei faces to show how they could look like. Byzantines artists started with encaustic technique but later they found the egg tempera as more easy and strong material. After 14th century Catholics change the Icons to modern ones (see the blonde Jesus of Renaissance) but the Orthodox keep the same models as the old ones for Jesus and Saints, till now. Babis