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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1995.1132
Title
Furniture Applique in the Form of a Theatrical Mask
Classification
Sculpture
Work Type
sculpture
Date
2nd-3rd century CE
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World
Period
Roman Imperial period
Culture
Roman
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/304280

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Leaded bronze
Technique
Cast, lost-wax process
Dimensions
h. 3 cm x w. 3.1 cm (1 3/16 x 1 1/4 in.)
Technical Details

Chemical Composition: ICP-MS/AAA data from sample, Leaded Bronze:
Cu, 81.07; Sn, 8.34; Pb, 9.67; Zn, 0.431; Fe, 0.18; Ni, 0.04; Ag, 0.04; Sb, 0.04; As, 0.18; Bi, less than 0.025; Co, 0.007; Au, less than 0.01; Cd, less than 0.001
J. Riederer

Technical Observations: The patina is dark green and black with areas of red. The surface is well preserved, with some areas of pitting. Half of the ring loop at the top is lost. The tip of the nose is very worn from use. What appears to be a black core material is present in the interior.

The texture in the concave portion on the reverse appears to be related to manipulating wax into a mold, thus this head was probably produced using an indirect lost-wax technique. Details were formed directly in the wax. A curved stamp tool was used to make most of the curls of the hair in the wax model. There is currently no evidence of inlay material in the eyes. The 1-mm wire loop at the top was made separately and attached through a hole at the top of the head. This element contradicts the use of the cast as a furniture applique.


Henry Lie (submitted 2002)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Nelson Goodman, Weston, MA (by 1970), gift; to the Harvard University Art Museums, 1995.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Nelson Goodman
Accession Year
1995
Object Number
1995.1132
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Descriptions

Published Catalogue Text: Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes at the Harvard Art Museums
This applique head may depict a theater mask. The face is large, with a well-sculpted nose and mouth, and has deeply hollowed eyes with sharp lids above and below (1). A band is visible on the brow below the hair, which is arranged in an elaborately waved coiffure. Parted in the middle and framing the face with wavy locks, the hairstyle is similar to that of second- to third-century CE Roman empresses, such as Julia Domna. The reverse is concave.

Appliques in the form of heads were used to decorate a variety of objects in the Roman world (2). Applique masks with ring loops, like the Harvard example, are also known (3).

NOTES:

1. Compare a head applique of similar size, with lead solder on the reverse, in the Louvre, Paris, inv. no. Br 560; and see a selection of bronze theater masks, mostly comic but one tragic, of similar size in the collection Dutuit, in J. Petit, Bronzes Antiques de la Collection Dutuit: Grecs, hellénistiques, romains et de l’Antiquité tardive (Paris, 1980) 133-36, nos. 62-68.

2. See L. Pirzio Biroli Stefanelli, ed., Il bronzo dei Romani: Arredo e suppellettile (Rome, 1990) 59, 182, 230, 232-33, 268, and 278-79, nos. 47, 93, 95, and 100, figs. 28 (a furniture fragment), 151 (a lamp), 213-14 (a braiser), 216-17 (a stand), and 265 (a cover).

3. See T. Tomasevic Buck, “Authepsae, auch ein Instrument der ärztlichen Versorgung?” in From the Parts to the Whole: Acta of the 13th International Bronze Congress, held at Cambridge, Massachusetts, May 28 - June 1, 1996, eds. C. C. Mattusch, A Brauer, and S. E. Knudsen (Portsmouth, RI, 2002) 2: 213-32, esp. 224-25.


Lisa M. Anderson

Subjects and Contexts

  • Ancient Bronzes

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu