From time to time throughout history, certain civilizations have developed modes of portraiture that capture not just the accurate image of a people, but also the very spirit of an age. Such is the case with the painted mummy portraits of the Egyptian Fayum, with the sculpted busts of the roman republic, and with the terracotta portrait vessels of the Moche. Powerful yet revealing, naturalistic and idealized all at the same time, these clay heads show a proud, aristocratic people, masters of the world around them. To look upon such an image is to understand not only the appearance of this man, but his soul as well.