Cave, tomb and Roman home

Unknown artist · About 15,000–13,000 years ago

This bison is painted on the actual ceiling of Altamira in Spain. The cave’s polychrome paintings date broadly to about 15,000–13,000 years ago. Their makers worked on uneven stone, incorporating its shape into the animals.

Unknown artists of Patagonia · About 9,300–1,300 years ago

Cueva de las Manos in Argentine Patagonia means Cave of the Hands. UNESCO dates the site’s imagery broadly to about 9,300–1,300 years ago. This rock surface was used across many generations.

Unidentified Egyptian painters · c. 1350 BCE

This original fragment comes from Nebamun's tomb chapel at Thebes, around 1350 BCE. He hunts birds from a papyrus boat with his wife and daughter. The abundant animals and plants belong to a hoped-for prosperous afterlife. The surviving painting once formed part of a larger room, including a companion fishing scene now largely lost.

Unidentified Egyptian painters · ca. 1386–1347 BCE

This ceiling fragment was found beside Amenhotep III's bedchamber at Malqata. Rosette-filled spirals alternate with ox skulls. Similar patterns occur in earlier Aegean decoration. The fragment has losses and restorations, so its present surface combines ancient painting with later reconstruction.

Unidentified Egyptian painters · Third Intermediate Period, probably Dynasty 21 (about 1069-945 BCE)

Temple singer Tayu-henut-Mut praises Osiris before an offering table. Behind the god, a scribe copied five spells from the larger Book of the Dead. One helps the deceased remember her name. Preserving a name was essential to continued existence in ancient Egyptian belief, making writing as consequential as imagery.

Unidentified Egyptian painters · ca. 1050 BCE

Nauny's funerary papyrus was stored inside a wooden figure of Osiris. In its central judgment scene, her heart is weighed against Maat, the principle of divine order. Text and images supported her passage into the afterlife. The book was made for burial rather than ordinary reading during life.

Unidentified painters of Roman Egypt · c. 25–37 CE

The girl's hairstyle and clothing follow Greco-Roman fashion, while the portrait's purpose belongs to Egyptian burial practice. Gold on the lips and jewelry may refer to the dead person's transformation into an effective spirit. Local religious customs continued under Greek and Roman rule in Egypt.

Unidentified painters of Roman Egypt · 100–150 CE

A Greek inscription names the boy as Eutyches, though its remaining words admit different readings. His face was modeled with wax-based paint in encaustic technique. Greco-Roman portrait painting joins the Egyptian funerary practice of placing a painted panel over a mummy's face.

Unidentified painters of Roman Egypt · c. 138–192 CE

The portrait was painted on linen, used less often than wood. Its delicate surface required brushes and limited the use of the metal tools employed with wax paint on panels. The image belonged to a body casing decorated with Egyptian religious scenes. Different representational traditions meet in a Roman Egyptian burial.

Unidentified painters of Roman Egypt · c. 138–192 CE

This portrait was attached to a mummy. Under Roman rule, Egyptians continued to embalm their dead while painting their faces on burial panels in a Greco-Roman manner. Here the artist depicted the woman’s turned head, the light on her skin and her jewellery. The gilding may have been added during preparations for burial.

Attributed to Hirschfeld Workshop · ca. 750–735 BCE

This large vessel served as a grave marker. Its main band shows the dead person laid out among mourners, with a procession below. The museum connects the procession with ancestral prestige. Geometric ornament organizes the whole surface, incorporating human figures into its repeating forms.

Attributed to Lydos · ca. 550 BCE

Hephaistos returns to Olympus with Dionysos, satyrs, and maenads. The krater was used to mix wine and water at a symposium. Its mythological procession connected the painted vessel with the activity of its users. The museum attributes the decoration to Lydos, an Athenian black-figure painter.

Attributed to Exekias · ca. 540 BCE

The amphora's black-figure decoration combines a chariot scene with figures and combat episodes on its shoulder. The painter fitted the figures and ornamental bands to the vessel's shape. Fine internal lines were incised through the dark coating. The museum attributes the work to Exekias, a leading Athenian vase painter.

Attributed to Berlin Painter · ca. 490 BCE

A singer plays a kithara, while a judge appears on the vessel's reverse, probably indicating a musical competition. The figure stands against a smooth black ground. His pose and flowing clothing convey movement. The painter's personal name is unknown; the conventional name refers to a work held in Berlin.

Unidentified painter of Poseidonia · 480–470 BCE

This image covers the lid of a tomb discovered in 1968 near ancient Poseidonia, now Paestum. Four side slabs show a symposium, while a young man dives into water above them. All five stone surfaces were plastered and painted on the inside. The museum reads the dive symbolically within this funerary setting, without a universally settled explanation.

Unidentified Roman painters · 80–70 BCE

These paintings of 80–70 BCE surrounded a room in a villa near Pompeii. Dionysus, Ariadne, satyrs and other figures appear against red walls. The cycle is commonly connected with Dionysiac rites, but its exact sequence remains disputed. This photographic panorama joins surviving walls that originally enclosed the viewer.

Unidentified Teotihuacan painter · 500–600 CE

This fragment came from an aristocratic palace in Teotihuacan. A priest makes an offering involving sharp agave leaves. A decorated speech scroll carries water and plant signs from his mouth. Repeated ritual images linked palace walls with prayers for rain and fertility, essential to the large city.