Vivid depiction of a mask-like male face against a black background. A yellow cloth headdress covers the head. It is rolled together at the temples and then cascades downwards, framing the face. The absence of forehead hair suggests a bald head. The mouth is open, revealing meticulously detailed teeth. The face was probably bearded and is framed by green foliage scrolls. The mask-like face, and especially the open mouth, recalls theatrical masks, which were popular decorative elements in Roman wall painting. for example as auxiliary motifs or as part of a more complex compositions or stage scenery. Reassembled from three fragments, with breaks retouched. Preserved in a case dating to the late 18th–early 19th century.
PROVENANCE
Formerly MuM AG, Basel, 1950s-1960s. Thereafter priv. coll. of the German-Swiss archaeologist Karl Schefold (1905-1999). Subsequently priv. coll. Mr. G., France, acquired in the 1990s or earlier. Late 18th–early 19th century case.
NOTE
For the mask type, cf. a mask on the so-called Six-Mask Cup from the Hildesheim Silver Treasure (late 1st cent. B.C.- early 1st cent. A.D.), U. Gehrig, Hildesheimer Silberschatz aus dem Antikenmuseum (Berlin 1980) 17 with fig. 15. There, the ivy-wreathed mask is identified as Dionysus. Representations of masks were popular in the Roman art and were used in a wide range of genres and monument types. Such ubiquity attests to the high importance that the theater, with its distinct modes of expression - tragedy, comedy, and satyr play - held in people’s lives. The presence of teeth, an element seldom found in theatrical masks, is unusual.