J.R. Green et al., Ancient Voices – Modern Echoes: Theatre in the Greek World (Nicholson Museum, University of Sydney, 2003) 44-45 no. 14 (ill.).

1996.05

Fragment of a Marble Mask

Presented to the Museum by the Friends of the Classics Museum to mark the 50th Anniversary of the Australian National University. Max. pres. ht 15.3cm; max. pres. width 9.4cm; max. pres. depth ca 7cm.

Rather dull, dense off-white marble. The mask is a fragment from a larger object and no fully original edge is preserved. Much of the back is smoothly finished and the surface seems to have been trimmed on the beard’s left. The top of the head is broken off on the diagonal, the line smooth and with consistent accretions. The beard is damaged at its lower right; otherwise, what is preserved is in very good condition. The surface is very finely finished.

The mask seems to have been angled forward.

Above and on the right side are the remains of a fillet. No hair is visible, nor are the ears. The face has a high, domed forehead and wrinkled brows indicated by sharply-cut grooves. The brows are strongly raised and have bulges below; the right is somewhat higher than the left. Bulging, out-lined eyes, creased fleshy cheeks, snub nose, rather flat-fronted, near semicircular mouth, intricate curly beard which seems likely to have been matched right and left. The eye-ducts were created by use of the drill, those at the right eye clearly distinguishable. There is evidence of the same size of drill to either side of the nose (to produce the flaring nostrils) and at a number of places in the beard. The pupils of the eyes are drilled and an outline left around the holes.

The identification of the mask is not certain, whether an Old Man from Comedy, a Pornoboskos from Comedy, or a Papposilenos, and the question is made more difficult by the absence of ears. The shape of the forehead and the absence of visible hair over the brow make it unlikely to be a comic Old Man, even though the treatment of the brows would not be unsuitable. The choice between the other two is more arbitrary, except that the Pornoboskos (brothel-keeper) normally has a more regular, straight, fuller beard, and the type is much less frequently portrayed by this date. On balance it is therefore likely to be a Papposilenos, the old father satyr of satyr-play, the chief companion and advisor of Dionysos. His ears would have been equine.

The style echoes Augustan, especially in the treatment of the eyes, which in turn echoed Early Hellenistic. While noting the use of the drill as a terminus post quem, this quality of work is unlikely after the Antonines and a date near or towards the middle of the second century AD seems probable. The nature of the marble would perhaps indicate an origin in the eastern half of the Empire, and the quality of the work would suggest a major centre in it. There is nothing provincial about the piece, indeed the treatment is lively and vigorous even if it has a somewhat patterned quality to it, most noticeably in the handling of the beard.

The nature of the object from which the item came can only be hypothesised. It is clear that it came from the right edge of a relief, from against the frame, and the angle of the mask suggests that it was placed fairly high in it. It is possible that it comes from a Muse sarcophagus, where masks are represented fairly frequently as identifiers of the Muses (though which of them would be associated with a Papposilenos mask is less clear: Melpomene?). The quality is certainly too good for an ordinary grave relief. Or it could be from some sort of quasi-theatrical monument, such as the well-known mask-reliefs found in Italy (cf. Monuments Illustrating New Comedy [3rd ed. rev. and enlarged by J.R. Green and Axel Seeberg, BICS Suppl. 50, 1995) 5XS 1-10]), although such things are rare at this period and the style of this is different.

For characterisations of the masks of the comic old man and the pornoboskos, see Monuments Illustrating New Comedy (3rd ed. rev. and enlarged by J.R. Green and Axel Seeberg, BICS Suppl. 50, 1995) i, 11-12 and 14-15.

The mask is mounted with a brass rod on a modern plinth. Purchased from Charles Ede Ltd (London).

J.R. Green et al., Ancient Voices – Modern Echoes: Theatre in the Greek World (Nicholson Museum, University of Sydney, 2003) 44-45 no. 14 (ill.).