Mask of a Satyr

Catalogue Number	58
Inventory Number	96.AD.305
Typology	Mask
Location	Sicily
Dimensions	H: 12 cm; W: 15.5 cm

Pinkish in color (Munsell 5 yr 8/4), very porous, with numerous reflective and carbonous inclusions. Polychromy: brownish red (hair and face), orange red (orbital arch and mouth), white (interior of the orbital arch, dentition, and wreath), black (eyebrows), pink (ears), and sky blue (leaves of the wreath).

Reassembled from about fifteen fragments, gaps on the nape of the neck, traces of repainting over the original polychromy.

– by 1994–95, Barbara and Lawrence Fleischman (New York, NY), donated to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1996.

Passion for antiquities 1994, no. 291, p. 356; Acquisitions 1997–98, p. 67.

The mask depicts a young satyr wearing a wreath, with strongly emphasized facial features and a stern, somewhat threatening expression. The face is round, with a powerful jaw, full cheeks, a short, rounded chin with a dimple in the center, and a wide-open mouth with fleshy, prominent lips; the upper dental arch is visible. The robust nose has enlarged nostrils and an upturned tip with two incisions, one at the base and one in the upper part of the septum. The eyes are staring and hollowed out with convex eyeballs and perforated irises, surrounded by heavy, distinctly marked eyelids; the eyebrows are thick and furrowed; the forehead has a bump in the upper portion and is furrowed by a horizontal crease; the ears are feral and pointed. The hairstyle, which is rendered in the back with fine incisions, rises up over the forehead, where a voluminous wreath, decorated with six ivy leaves and two round pieces of fruit at the center, was applied. There are two suspension holes in the lower part of the nape of the neck.

The mask is configured as a full-fledged scale model of originals that were worn onstage by actors.¹ The wreath was worked by hand and applied before firing. The polychromy, in keeping with tradition, was used to express or emphasize the distinctive character details, such as the red of the male complexion, the white of the eyeballs, or the black of the eyebrows.

The mask seems to echo the general characteristics of the beardless satyr type from New Comedy (satyros ageneios) described in the Onomastikon by Pollux, though in this case the facial features were interpreted with a certain creative license with respect to the Attic prototypes.² The type, however, shows notable affinities with the masks of the so-called Vollmer Group of terracottas, according to T. B. L. Webster’s classification, datable between the middle of the second century BC and 50 BC; those masks are distinguished by powerfully plastic modeling with marked chiaroscuro effects and expressive emphasis, accentuated by staring eyes and wide-open mouths. Examples of this group have been found in various centers of the Aegean, southern Italy, and Sicily, but it is likely that the type originates from Campania.

The masks related to the Vollmer Group find parallels also in the production of Myrina and Priene: for example, a mask, possibly depicting a parasite and dating back to the second century BC, presents similar characteristics. This means that, especially in the Late Hellenistic period, distinctive elements peculiar to one type might in some cases be transmitted to and used in other typologies as well, since the serial production of masks had increasingly little to do with actual theatrical performances; the iconography, therefore, tended to move toward the generic.³ In Sicily, examples that could be assignable to this group and which depict various characters from New Comedy were found in Agrigento, San Fratello, and Centuripe.⁴

In other centers, as well, masks have been found that refer to characters other than the one represented by the Getty mask but which are comparable on the basis of stylistic peculiarities and especially the emphasis on plasticity. At Lipari, for instance, there are a number of small masks, datable to the first half of the third century BC, with a convivial wreath, large staring eyes, and round eyeballs, that exhibit the distinctive characteristics of the group. A female mask found in Adrano is datable by stratigraphic evidence to the third century BC and is characterized by powerful plastic modeling; another mask with the same characteristics at the British Museum, possibly depicting a parasite and datable to the second century BC, has tentatively been assigned to Sicily.⁵ As for the possible archaeological context, it should be emphasized that, according to the current state of research in Sicily, in particular at Adrano and Morgantina, the most substantial group of theatrical materials comes from the settlement areas; in Lipari, by contrast, theatrical terracottas are documented almost exclusively in funerary contexts. Such is the case also at Centuripe, where, between the third and the second century BC, masks are a recurring feature in funerary deposits, expressing most clearly the intimate relationship between the cult of the dead and Dionysian rituals.⁶ Moreover, masks and statuettes of actors are attested in the sanctuaries of Demeter and Kore, deities linked with Dionysos in cult practices; thus one finds evidence of several cults within a single sanctuary, in keeping with a syncretistic approach attested in the Hellenistic period.⁷ Hypothetically, the Getty mask can be assigned to Sicily and is most closely comparable with the production of Centuripe in the second century BC.⁸

Notes