A Tanagra terracotta figure of a boy holding a comic mask
Circa 3rd Century B.C.
Standing with his right knee relaxed, the weight on his left leg, enveloped in a long himation coloured in white slip, gathered at his chest with his right hand, hidden beneath the drapery, the folds falling over his left hand, in which he holds a theatrical comic mask coloured in red slip, the boy with short curling red hair dressed with an umber wreath, standing on a rectangular integral plinth, 6½in (16.4cm) high, mounted
Circa 3rd Century B.C.
Standing with his right knee relaxed, the weight on his left leg, enveloped in a long himation coloured in white slip, gathered at his chest with his right hand, hidden beneath the drapery, the folds falling over his left hand, in which he holds a theatrical comic mask coloured in red slip, the boy with short curling red hair dressed with an umber wreath, standing on a rectangular integral plinth, 6½in (16.4cm) high, mounted
Sold for
£8,400
inc. premium
Footnotes
- Provenance:
European private collection, from the late 1950s onwards. Accompanied by a thermoluminescence report from Oxford Authentication confirming that the piece is ancient.
Literature:
For another example of a South Italian terracotta figure holding a theatrical mask, cf, R.A. Higgins, Tanagra and the Figurines, (London 1988), fig 168. This subject matter of a youth holding a comic mask is rare, it is more usual to find comic masks held by figures of the Muses of Tragedy and Comedy.
Category: Antiquities
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