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Decorative relief fragment: dramatic mask
Roman
Imperial Period
Medium/Technique
Stone, low-grade Greek (Asia Minor) marble with crystals
Dimensions
10.5 x 13 cm (4 1/8 x 5 1/8 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Charles C. Perkins
Accession Number76.755
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsAncient Greece and Rome
ClassificationsSculpture
Catalogue Raisonné
Sculpture in Stone (MFA), no. 302; Sculpture in Stone and Bronze (MFA), p. 113 (additional published references).
DescriptionThe lower part of the mouth of the mask has been broken away.
The relative thinness of the background indicates that this relief, with its compressed comic mask (set at an angle into the background), formed part of rectangular panel of the type set on pillars in Roman gardens or used as windows in houses. The use of round drill-holes to indicate the "hair" or headcloth of the mask and the similar treatment of the nostrils suggest the panel was carved in the Flavian period or later, perhaps as late as the early Severan period, or about A.D. 200.
Although the break across the lower part of the mouth makes positive judgement difficult, this fragment would seem to represent the stern old father of Greek New Comedy and of the corresponding Latin plays.
The relative thinness of the background indicates that this relief, with its compressed comic mask (set at an angle into the background), formed part of rectangular panel of the type set on pillars in Roman gardens or used as windows in houses. The use of round drill-holes to indicate the "hair" or headcloth of the mask and the similar treatment of the nostrils suggest the panel was carved in the Flavian period or later, perhaps as late as the early Severan period, or about A.D. 200.
Although the break across the lower part of the mouth makes positive judgement difficult, this fragment would seem to represent the stern old father of Greek New Comedy and of the corresponding Latin plays.
ProvenanceBy date unknown: Charles C. Perkins Collection; gift of Charles C. Perkins to MFA, 1876