2022.282: Protome of Dionysos

Identification and Creation

Object Number

2022.282

Title

Protome of Dionysos

Classification

Sculpture

Work Type

sculpture

Date

4th century BCE

Places

Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Europe, Boeotia

Period

Classical period

Culture

Greek

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/377053

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Painted terracotta

Technique

Mold-made

Dimensions

H. 16.8 × W. 14.1 × D. 6.4 cm (6 5/8 × 5 9/16 × 2 1/2 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History

Louis-Joseph-Raphaël Collin [1], Paris, (by 1890-1911), sold; to William A. Clark [2], New York, (by 1911-1925), bequest; to Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., (1926-2018) [3], transferred; to American University Museum, Washington, D.C., (2018-2021), sold; [through Sands of Time, Washington, D.C.]; to Harvard Art Museums, 2022.

1. Louis-Joseph-Raphaël Collin (1850-1916)
2. William Andrews Clark (1839-1925)
3. Following the closure of the Corcoran Gallery in 2014, its collections were physically transferred to the National Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C.); the Corcoran Board of Trustees retained ownership until the collections were officially transferred to and accessioned into other museums’ collections (in 2018, in this case).

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Kelekian Fund

Accession Year

2022

Object Number

2022.282

Division

Asian and Mediterranean Art

Contact

am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu

Permissions

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Descriptions

Description

This terracotta object depicts the head of a mature man in relief. Bearded and mustachioed, he also wears a wide, low polos (a high cylindrical headdress or crown), under which his hair parts to each side in waves, with curling ringlets framing his face. On the line dividing his hair and his polos are two piercings that would have allowed this object to be hung. Original coloration is still present: the face is red; eyebrows are black; eyes are black and white; the beard is covered in white. Traces of gray or blue pigment are visible on the polos and the sides of the headdress flanking the hair. Accretion is present across the surface.

The terracotta has been mended from several large fragments; there is a loss (missing fragment) from the lower right corner, where traces of glue are visible at the break. The upper and lower left corners are also slightly chipped.

Commentary

This bearded male face is a depiction of the god Dionysos. This object type is often called a “protome”: a depiction of a head, bust, or forepart of a human (or divinity) or animal. The specific type here is also sometimes referred to as a “mask; however, it is not a wearable mask. Protomes like this may have been dedicated at sanctuaries, suspended by means of the holes in the lower part of the polos,[1] or placed in burials.[2] They may, also, have been displayed in domestic contexts. Other protomes of Dionysos often take the form of a bust of Dionysos in a chthonic mode: he holds an egg and a rooster or kantharos.[3]

[1] While these need not be understood literally (as representing “actual” scenes of worship), depictions on painted vases sometimes show masks of Dionysos mounted on walls or pillars/columns, such as on some of the so-called “Lenaia Vases” (e.g., Metropolitan Museum of Art 75.2.21) or a late fifth-century red-figure chous found in Peiraios Street, Athens, attributed to the Etretria Painter (Athens, Ephorate 3500 = Beazley Archive Pottery Database 28128), on which a mask is depicted in profile, hanging on a pillar.

[2] For example, terracotta protomes (masks and busts) of Dionysos were excavated at the necropolis of Halai in Lokris. There, female protomes were found placed against the exterior of sarcophagi. (Goldman, H., and F. Jones. 1942. "Terracottas from the Necropolis of Halae." Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens 11 (4):365-421: p. 369. Walker, A.L., and H. Goldman. 1915. "Report on Excavations at Halae of Locris." American Journal of Archaeology 19 (4):418-37. P. 429, fig. 5.)

[3] E.g., British Museum 1875,0309.21 https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/G_1875-0309-21 and 1874,0305.71 https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/G_1874-0305-71 ).

Publication History

• Corcoran Gallery of Art, ed., Illustrated handbook of the W. A. Clark collection, Corcoran Gallery of Art (Washington, DC, 1928), p. 111, no. 2591
• Corcoran Gallery of Art, ed., Illustrated handbook of the W.A. Clark Collection, Corcoran Gallery of Art (Washington, DC, 1932), p. 110, no. 2591

Verification Level