Currently not on view
Mosaic plaque: Mask of Dionysos,
1st century BCE–1st century CE
Hellenistic to Roman Imperial Period, ca. 30 BCE–476 CE
y1952-50
Information
Title
Mosaic plaque: Mask of Dionysos
Dates
1st century BCE–1st century CE
Medium
Opaque white, green, red, black/purple, and beige glass, on translucent grayish blue background
Dimensions
2.9 x 1.2 cm (1 1/8 x 1/2)
Credit Line
Museum purchase
Object Number
y1952-50
Place Made
Italy ?
Description
Milky white half-mask of Dionysos, set in a grayish blue ground. Red hair rendered with tiny “black” spirals in red ground at upper part of the head and forehead; red and black vertical strands and three corkscrew locks at sideburns and below the neck. Eyebrow, eyelid, eye, and nose outlined in black. Wide, open black mouth outlined in red. Implying a wreath in the hair are four green, trilobed ivy leaves, two outlined in yellow and two in gray, along with an ivy flower cluster of green circles outlined in yellow and black. A green band, outlined in yellow and black, is on the forehead below the hair.
Materials
Subject
Purchased in 1952
- Anton Carel Kisa, Das Glas im Altertume, (Leipzig, K. W. Hiersemann, 1908). , Vol. 2: pp. 501ff
-
The theater in ancient art: an exhibition, the Art Museum, Princeton University, December 10, 1951-January 6, 1952 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1951).
, cat. no. 41 (illus.) -
Egyptian, Greek & Roman antiquities: pottery, bronzes, sculputres, necklaces, iridescent glass, a gold victory wreath; Mexican & Central American pre-Columbian art; Japanese ivory carvings; Chinese jade; European ivories & objets d'art; bronze groups, (New York: Kende Galleries at Gimbel Brothers, 1951).
, cat. no. 101 - Richard Ettinghausen, Ancient glass in the Freer Gallery of Art, (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1962). , figs. 36ff.
- Otto Zwierlein, Zur Kritik und Exegese des Plautus, (Stuttgart: Steiner Verlag, 1990-1992)., Vol. 4: p. 52, fig. 3
- T. B. L. Webster, Monuments illustrating new comedy, (London: Institute of Classical Studies, University of London School of Advanced Study, 1995)., cat. no. 2xV3d, p. 162
- Anastassios Antonaras, Fire and Sand: Ancient Glass in the Princeton University Art Museum (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 2012), cat. no. 322 (illus.)
