Days at the Egyptian Museum of Cairo: The Two Brothers before they head to Italy

The Egyptian Museum in Cairo (EMC) announced earlier this week that it has restored the famous “Two Brothers” Fayoum portrait, which will take part in an exhibition abroad in Italy.

I’d like to seize this opportunity to share my old photo of the “Two Brothers” from before the restoration, taken at the EMC more than 10 years ago.

The Portrait of the two brothers in 2016 at the Egyptian Museum of Cairo

According to the EMC, the round wooden panel, commonly known as the “Tondo of the Two Brothers,” depicts two brothers whose purple cloaks, fastened with brooches, suggest they may have been warriors. They may have died together. The old gallery label dates the portrait to the 2nd century AD, while the EMC website is more specific: the reign of Hadrian (c. AD 117-138).

My old photo doesn’t show it, but above the shoulder of the darker-skinned young man there is a small figure.

The EMC describes it as Hermes, while other sources read it as Hermanubis, a fusion of Ancient Egyptian Anubis and Ancient Greek Hermes.

Above the shoulder of the other young man is a figure said to be Osiris-Antinous, a fusion of Osiris and Antinous.

The EMC does not name it, although it notes that the figure holds a staff and wears an Egyptian crown. At first glance, I thought it was Mars in his famous naked pose from Pompeii.

In Greco-Roman Egypt, Greek and Roman deities were fused with popular ancient Egyptian ones or ancient Egyptian ones with each other.

 A golden diadem featuring Separis, a Greco-hybrid deity mix of  Osiris and Apis
From the treasure of Dush at the Egyptian Museum of Cairo in 2016

Back to our painting.

Below the figure on the left, there is an inscription in ancient Greek that reads “15th Pachon,” the 15th day of Pashons; the ninth month of the ancient Egyptian calendar.

It currently falls on about 10 May in our calendar. This means that Roman Egypt in the 2nd century AD was still using the Egyptian calendar, in its Alexandrian form.

It is unclear what the date refers to, but some scholars say it may mark the date the young men died or were buried.

Now to the elephant in the room, which I kept for last: below the date, on the white tunic of the young man, who died about 1,900 years ago, there is a red swastika.

I am posting it again so you can see its details.

It is the earliest swastika in ancient Egypt that I could find; the next one I came across dates to about two centuries later.

It is a symbol imported from Eurasia, with prehistoric origins.

According to the EMC, it represents fertility, but other sources I found say that in Roman times, when the symbol became popular across the empire, it signified rebirth in funerary settings.

Although the portrait is usually catalogued in Egypt and abroad among the famous “Fayoum portraits,” it was unearthed by the French archaeologist Albert Gayet during his 1888-1889 excavations in Sheikh Ibada, known as Antinoopolis in Roman times and Besa in ancient Egypt, in Minya governorate.

Emperor Hadrian founded Antinoopolis around AD 130, following the death of his companion and lover Antinous in Egypt.

The portrait dating to Hadrian’s reign would therefore place it in the city’s early years.

The portrait has another name as I hinted above "The tonodo of the two brothers".  

Despite "tondo" iss an Italian Renaissance term for a circular work of art, either a painting or a sculpture , we know for sure the circular work of arts are ancient. 

Here is another tondo in the famous Fayoum portraits collection at the Egyptian Musum of Cairo; the Athlete’s tonodo Portrait within a Roman Era Aedicula aka Shrine. 

The Athlete tonodo at the Egyptian Museum of Cairo

Circa 2nd-3rd century, it was found in Fayoum. I did not see it but that small shrine itself is embellished with symbols of ancient Greek athletic culture, further elevating the subject’s status especailly in the ceiling ; which we can't see.

Now for those who do not know, Fayoum portraits are realistic painted portraits, mostly on wooden panels, that were placed over the faces of mummies in Roman-period Egypt, from roughly the 1st to the 3rd century AD. 

A mummy of a little girl with her portrait in the style of Fayoum portraits 
at the Egyptian Museum of Cairo in 2016

They are named after the Fayoum region, where many were found, but they have turned up across Egypt, including Antinoopolis.

A  collection from Fayoum portraits at the Egyptian Museum of Cairo in 2016

Again, despite being considered a “Fayoum portrait,” we do not know whether "Two Brothers portrait" was found over two mummies or in a tomb.

Some scholars say it is actually a commemorative portrait.

As I mentioned above, the painting has undergone restoration. According to the EMC, it suffered damage from an old infestation of wood-boring insects, probably termites, which resulted in the loss of parts of the wooden support and the paint layer, as you can tell from my photo.

Examinations also revealed earlier restoration work that had placed parts of the mouth and chin of the figure on the right side of the painting in incorrect positions.

The restoration took place from 6 to 25 September 2026, as a collaboration between specialists from the Rome-based Fabrica Conservazione e Restauro and the restoration lab team at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

The Two Brothers after restoration

The work focused on reinforcing fragile areas, treating damage, and returning detached fragments to their correct positions.

Now that its restoration is complete, the “Two Brothers” is set to travel outside Egypt for the first time, as part of the exhibition “The Power of the Portrait: Egypt and Rome: Faces of Fayum,” hosted by the Ara Pacis Museum in Rome from 5 November 2026 to 2 May 2027.

A  collection of the portraits at the Egyptian Museum of Cairo in 2016

The exhibition will feature more than 110 artefacts, including wooden panels, shrouds and funerary masks, as well as marble sculptures, plaster casts and ancient jewellery from the Greco-Roman era.

The plaster funerary masks at the Egyptian Museum of Cairo 

Funerary masks appeared in ancient Egypt during the Middle Kingdom, particularly among royalty and the wealthy. 

Plaster funerary cartonnage masks became a hallmark of Greco-Roman Egypt, beginning in the Ptolemaic period.

During the Ptolemaic period, funerary artisans layered linen or papyrus with adhesive and plaster, then painted and sometimes gilded the surface.

The plaster funerary masks at the Egyptian Museum of Cairo 

You can see facial features gradually shift from the traditional ancient Egyptian artistic style in the early Ptolemaic period to more naturalistic, lifelike representations by the late Roman period.

Plaster funerary masks from the Roman era in Egypt from 1st to 3rd Century AD
Those masks were in Tuna El-Gabal 

Approximately 60 painted portraits will be shown in Rome, including 23 works from the Louvre Museum.

It is the first time this Greco-Roman collection has left Egypt.

I hope the Fayoum Portraits section is renovated during these months of absence.

Part of the Fayoum portraits at the Egyptian Museum of Cairo in 2016

Most people overlook the fact that Egypt has had a whole section for these portraits at the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir for over a century.

The Louvre’s collection of Fayoum portraits is so well known that people automatically assume it is the only one. The focus on Tutankhamun, unfortunately, makes the oversight worse.

The fact that the brothers are going to Rome has reopened an old debate in Egypt among those concerned: is it good to let our ancient artefacts travel, especially right after restoration?

The pro-travel camp believes that artefacts on tour abroad can bring in foreign currency quickly, helping directly with our bottomless debt problem, and can encourage tourism.

Ancient Egyptian artefacts on their way from the Egyptian Museum of Cairo to Rome
to participate in the hit "Treasures of the Pharaohs" from October 2025 to May 2026

The keep-our-artifacts-in-Egypt camp argues that artefacts at home already bring in foreign currency through tourism

Tourists spend more money and create more job opportunities when they visit our artefacts in our museums in Egypt. This is a long-term approach, while touring is a short-term one.

Personally, I lean toward the long-term approach because it builds a whole economy.

Ancient Egyptian artefcts coming back from their hit exhibt in China's Shanghai 

I also wonder why we often see artefacts from our Egyptian museums go on tour, while we seldom see Egyptian artefacts held in foreign museums, like the British Museum or the Neues Museum in Berlin, come to Egypt on loan.

Like anything at the EMC, it starts with one piece, and you end up in a long history.

The “Two Brothers” took me on an unexpected trip to that area in Minya, and to how it transformed from Besa to Antinoopolis to Sheikh Ibada. But that is for another time and another post.