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Details
LOT 0687
Roman Tragic Mask Applique
1ST CENTURY A.D. OR LATER
2/3 in. (3 grams, 16.2 mm).
A rectangular slate mount showing the head of a tragic mask with angular eyes, straight nose and a clownish, down-turned mouth. [No Reserve]
Provenance
Acquired from Galerie Jean Phillipe Mariaud de Serres, 1990-2000.
Property of a French collector.
Literature
Cf. for similar appliqués Rolland, H., Bronzes Antiques De Haute Provence, Paris, 1965, items 330-332.
Footnotes
Small appliqués like this one were common in Roman furniture. In the Graeco-Roman world, comic and tragic masks played an important role in Greek drama, commonly performed in the Roman Empire. The actors had the ability to easily play more than one character in succession with a simple change of masks, and the characters of the masks became popular objects in the material culture.
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