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Details
LOT 0068
Hellenistic Terracotta Theatre Mask
2ND-1ST CENTURY B.C.
2 3/8 in. (45 grams, 60 mm).
Modelled as a grotesque male head with gaping crescent-shaped mouth, pointed nose, furrowed brow and thick mop of hair around the head; pierced at the upper face.
Provenance
Acquired in the mid 1980s-1990s.
Private collection, Switzerland, thence by descent.
Private collection, since the late 1990s.
Literature
See The Getty Museum, accession no. 96.AQ.193, for a similar mask in lamp form.
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Glassmaking and glass-working were considered to be two separate crafts and took place in different regions during the Hellenistic period. Each craft was characterised by its own technological tradition, know-how and equipment. Glassmakers and glassworkers did not need to have an understanding of glass vessel manufacture and primary production respectively in order to carry out their tasks. Glassmaking had to take place as close as possible to the sources of the raw materials used, namely sand and mineral natron. Raw glass was traded throughout the Mediterranean in the form of ingots and it was then worked and shaped into vessels, inlays, jewellery, etc, in various locations. A lot of glass production took place on the Syro-Palestinian coast as well as the broader Levant and Egypt, with centres of manufacture in the royal capitals of Antioch and Alexandria. The reputation of the Alexandrian workshop is well-understood from luxury glass vessels decorated with Egyptian-style buildings or characteristic scenes found as far away as Italy and Afghanistan.
