Grotesque Terracotta Head (perhaps a Mime or an Actor)
Grotesque Terracotta Head (perhaps a Mime or an Actor)
The statuettes of “grotesques” often represented mimes, street actors, music players, dancers, or even street vendors or workers suffering from physical deformities or afflictions that the sculptors treated in an exaggerated manner, to create a caricature-like effect. At the end of the Hellenistic period, in the large urban centers such as Rome and Alexandria, the theatrical genre of pantomime (according to tradition, this genre was created by Sophron of Syracuse in the 5th century B.C. already) was very popular.
The man was lying on the side on a banquet couch (a kline), with an elbow and/or the torso leaning on cushions. Richly dressed, he wears a finely pleated tunic that reaches his feet and whose long sleeves are tight. The short hair entirely uncovers the face.
A beautiful, small Roman glass flask that imitates the shape of a date. The vertical grooves recall in a very realistic way the wrinkles of the dried fruit. The vessel is complete and intact.
