The statuette depicts a standing man, with a mask, which characterizes him as an actor. He is dressed in a large cloak. As it is usually the case at that time for terracotta examples, our figurine was molded in two parts, the front and the back.
Grotesque Terracotta Head (perhaps a Mime or an Actor)
This male head is cut straight under the neck. It is hollow and would have been molded in a bivalve mold. The face shows the exaggerated and archetypal features of the Greek-Roman images known as “grotesque”.
This face certainly represents a male figure; it shows some of the distinctive features of the Greek-Roman images known as “grotesque”, such as the big aquiline and pointed nose, the strongly marked, frowning eyebrows and the wrinkled forehead.
This statue was cast into a rosy beige clay covered with a white slip. The old woman, is seated on a stool; her face is covered with a grotesque mask and her gaze directed toward the baby she holds in her naked arms.
