Object type
sculpture
Culture/period
Rome
Materials
Montgrí limestone
Technique
sculpting
Mint
Production date
50 / 100
Current location
Sala IMPERIVM
Archaeological site
Empúries
Township
Escala, l' (Europa, Espanya, Catalunya, Girona, Alt Empordà)
Dimensions
38 x 42 cm; 30 kg
Description
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Sculpture depicting an actor wearing a Roman tragic theatrical mask, surely part of a full body sculpture. The front part corresponds to the mask itself: the almond-shaped eyes with quite marked eyebrows can be seen, and the hole in the mouth, wide and open, allows us to distinguish the lips of the actor wearing the mask. The hairstyle is made of long, vertical ringlets and curls, typical of hairpieces.
The back seems intentionally unfinished; the stone only rough. Although the shape of the mask's hairpiece, and of the actor's head and nape are well defined, their relief has not been worked on. This would indicate that the garment was only intended to be seen from the front.
Representations of theatrical masks appear in some of the paintings in Pompeii and other sumptuary villas in the Gulf of Naples area; but more frequently they are known as decorative elements in friezes at funerary monuments, documented both in the Iberian Peninsula and in Gaul.
This head was found by chance in the southern area of the Roman city of Empúries, surely linked to a necropolis area. It was acquired by Barcelona Museum Board in 1917 and was transferred to Catalonia Archaeology Museum in 1934.
© Museu d'Arqueologia de Catalunya - Barcelona
Omeka ID
2905