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Masks on Gnathia Vases
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 December 2013
Extract
The following list contains all the masks on Gnathia vases which I have seen or know from illustrations or photographs. I have added (nos. 37–44) Gnathia pictures of actors wearing masks, but I have not included either the Würzburg fragment with a tragic scene or the Leningrad kalyx krater with the prologue of the Eumenides because in both, though the painter may be influenced by the masks worn, he is painting characters rather than actors. I have also excluded satyrs because here again the boundary between character and actor is not clear to me. The list is divided into hanging masks (1–36) and worn masks (37–44). All the actors except the tragic actors belong to the so-called ‘Phlyakes’ known from a large number of South Italian vases of different manufactures, which are decorated with scenes sometimes inspired by Attic Middle Comedy. There is a case for interpreting the hanging masks also as stage masks since the hanging tragic masks (3–5a) are certainly stage masks and the mask of the old man on the London krater (7) is very like a terracotta actor in Oxford; the mask on the Haileybury krater recurs on an Attic relief.
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- Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1951
References
Acknowledgments are due for photographs and permission to reproduce to Professors Sir John Beazley, H. Diepolder, E. Gjerstad, and to the authorities of the British Museum, Ashmolean Museum, Reading Corporation Museum, Haileybury College, Stockport Municipal Museum, Bowdoin College, Rijksmuseum Leiden, and the Louvre; for photographs to Mr. B. Ashmole, Dr. A. Cambitoglou, M. J. Devambez, Professor H. Diepolder, M. H. P. Fourest, Monsignor Galbiati, Mr. K. Garlick, D. B. Harden, Professor C. M. E. Haspels, Miss Lodge, Professor E. von Mercklin, Miss G. M. A. Richter, Mr. J. Spencer and the University of Michigan. Sir John Beazley, Dr. A. Cambitoglou, Mr. J. M. T. Charlton, Professor H. Diepolder, Miss G. M. A. Richter, Professor A. D. Trendall, Dr. A. P. Treweek and Mrs. A. D. Ure have told me about unpublished vases. Dr. A. Cambitoglou, Mr. J. M. Cook, Professor A. Rumpf, Professor C. M. Robertson, Dr. M. N. Tod and Professor A. D. Trendall have helped me on many points. Finally, I ask Sir John Beazley to accept this as a token of gratitude for instruction, inspiration, and help over the past twenty-eight years.
1 Pickard-Cambridge, Theatre, fig. 55–6; Bulle, Skenographie; Rumpf, , J.H.S., LXVII, 13.Google Scholar
2 Pickard-Cambridge, Theatre, fig. 11; Séchan, Études, fig. 30; Bulle, Festschrift für James Loeb, B, fig. 9–10.
3 E.g. on the vases mentioned in n. 2, 9, and N.Sc. 1917, 130, fig. 36 and 38.
4 Heydemann, listed these in Jb. 1886, 260 f.Google Scholar, distinguishing them by letters. Zahn added to the list in F.R., III, 180, giving his additions small letters. I quote Heydemann M, n, Zahn q etc. A new list is given by Wüst, in RE, XX, 292 ft.Google Scholar
5 Cf. C.Q. XLII, 19 f.
6 Ashmolean Report, 1939, pl. V 3; Rylands Bulletin, XXXII, 130, fig. 5. Cf. old slave on London F. 151; Bieber, , Denkmäler (quoted as D.), pl. 82Google Scholar; History of the Greek and Roman Theater (quoted as H.T.), fig. 362. Hevdemann X.
7 Ath. Mitt. 1941, 218, pl. 73. Document relief from Aixone. I owe the knowledge of this to Professor A. Rumpf and a photograph to Mr. J. M. Cook. Five comic masks decorate the architrave above a low relief of Dionysos and a satyr. The fourth mask from the left is very like the Haileybury mask. It is also like the clay mask from Olynthus (IV no. 421), which may therefore be claimed for Comedy. Luschey, (Ganymed 76)Google Scholar associates with this last a marble mask from the Kerameikos, (A.A. 1942, 246, fig. 26/7)Google Scholar but I do not feel certain that that is not tragic. The inscription on the new Aixone relief commemorates a comedy produced in the archonship of Theophrastus by Auteas son of Autokles and Philoxenides son of Philippos. The proposal was made by Glaukides son of Sosippos and the demarch was Hegesileos. Kyparissis and Peek date 313/12, comparing another choregic inscription (I.G. II2 1202), which Kirchner dates 313/2 on the ground that Glaukides, who also proposed that decree, has a brother mentioned in a catalogue of 323 and that one of the men honoured, Aristokrates, proposed a decree in honour of Demetrius of Phalerum in 317. Although these are strong arguments and, as Dr. M. N. Tod points out, the other two choregic inscriptions at Aixone are dated 326/5 and 317/6 respectively, I am inclined to prefer the earlier Theophrastus, 340/39 for the following reasons: (1) in I.G. 1202 one of the men honoured is Kallikrates son of Glaukon; Glaukon son of Kallikrates was choregos in 317/6 (I.G. 1200). Twenty-three years is a better interval than four between the choregia of father and son. (2) Auteas son of Autokles is granted a lease with his father in 346/5 (I.G. 2492); he is more likely to have been choregos when he was 20+ than when he was 50+. (3) The Dionysos of the new relief derives from the same statue as the Dionysos of the Pompe oenochoe in New York dated about 350 (25. 190: Schefold, , K. V. pl. 10Google Scholar, U no. 327; Richter, Attic red-figured vases, fig. 123). The relief above I.G. 1202 is reproduced Br. Br. 785 B, is quite different in style, but cannot be more precisely dated. See however Buschor, , Misc. Acad. Ber., II, 2, 25 f.Google Scholar
8 Arch. Anz. 1936, 285; Rocco, , Mem. Accad. Napoli, VIGoogle Scholar, questions his upper date but does not give reasons.
9 Naples 3249; F.R. pl. 179; the lid, Jb. 1917, fig. 26; the main scene, Séchan fig. 31. Trendall, , Paestan Pottery, 62.Google Scholar
10 See Eine Skenographie, 1934, 5, quoting Watzinger, , F.R., III, 368Google Scholar, n. 17.
11 See Rumpf, J.H.S., LXVII, fig. 2.
12 Naples 3223; F.R., pl. 148; Pickard-Cambridge, fig. 19; Bieber, H.T., fig. 69; Séchan, fig. 111. The old ivy occurs on the lekanis in mixed technique (N.Sc. 1917, 130, figs. 36 and 38) which Scheurleer dates 340/30; I should put it a decade earlier; the style seems to me to go with the Louvre krater (B.S.R. XI, pl. 15–16), which according to Trendall is considerably earlier than 340 B.C.
13 Berlin 3257; F.R. pl. 149; Jacobsthal, , Ornamente, pl. 117 d.Google Scholar
14 1931, 5–11. 1; J.H.S., LI, pl. 4.
15 See above, n. 2.
16 Munich 2387; Schefold, U., no. 251; K.V., pl. 4b.
17 Olynthus, V, 96, no. 112, pl. 68.
18 Paestan Pottery, 45. Note that the Berlin Assteas has a foot like Boston and Leningrad; the Rape of Ajax (C. V. Italy 141/3) a foot like our London kalyx krater (38).
19 Leningrad; Bulle, G, fig. 13; Rumpf, Jb., XLIX, 18; J.H.S., LXVII, 15.
20 F 545; C.V. 37/7.
21 Ashmolean Report, 1939, pl. V. 5. Egg and tongue: battlements: white dots between incised lines: vine wreath with red stem and four pendant red sprays between which flying dove carrying necklace and diminishing lines below two circles.
22 C.V. 37/8.
23 Manchester Museum, IV. 1D.
24 E.g. Apulian, C.V. Denmark, 257/1. The kantharos is also a red-figure shape and is not common in Gnathia; our no. 44 is near in style to Vienna (42). A Gnathia pelike in Birmingham (1606/85) with Eros flying over floral ornament has the red-figure instead of the Gnathia shape; style in floral ornament and egg and tongue are also not unlike the Vienna bell krater. The subsidiary decoration of the Vienna bell krater connects it particularly closely with three bell kraters of the normal Gnathia shape: Cabinet des Médailles 941, and two in Naples, illustrated Rocco, op. cit., fig. 4 = Bulle, op. cit., fig. 25; fig. 5 = A.M. LIV, 164.
25 E.g. London, C.V. 41/3, 41/19, 43/2; Picard, B.C.H., 1907, no. 79Google Scholar; Pagenstecher, , Arch. Anz., 1909, pl. 1, no. 20.Google Scholar
26 E.g. Munich 2755; Pfuhl, fig. 605; Schefold, no. 258; Byvanck, , B.V.A.B., 1945, 30.Google Scholar Buschor, Gr.V., fig. 267.
27 New York 25. 190. Schefold no. 327; K.V. pl. 10; Richter, Attic red-figure vases, fig. 123. About 355 B.C. Cf. also Apulian oenochoe, C.V. Denmark, 264/1, which Johansen calls ‘proto-Apulian’.
28 Picard, op. cit., no. 47.
29 Naples, Picard, op. cit., no. 79; London, C.V., 41/3. There are no obvious parallels for the sharp shouldered oenochoe in the Louvre (27); the yellow spray depending from the ivy gives a cross-connection from the red and white to the yellow spray group.
30 F3489. Bulle, H, fig. 14; Bieber, H.T., fig. 417.
31 Bowdoin College, 15. 48. Cf. the reticulated lekythos, London, C.V., 41/1, for shape.
32 See above n. 13.
33 C.V., Denmark, 258/1.
34 Bologna 303. Pfuhl, fig. 590; A.R.V., 804/4.
35 See above n. 12. Compare also for legs and feet Aphrodite on the back of the Boreas, B.M. (J.H.S., LI, 89 fig. 2)Google Scholar but her head is turned the other way.
36 Harvard 1925. 30; C.V. Hoppin, pl. 6; Süsserott, , Gr. Plastik des IV Jahr., pl. 4, 4Google Scholar; 6, 1–2; Beazley, , A.J.A., XLVII, 458/2Google Scholar Nikomachus group.
37 Athens N.M. 2985; Süsserott pl. 5/4; Binneboessel, Urkundenrelief, no. 63; about 332 B.C. Süsserott, pl. 22/3, 4, 5 dated by him 330/20.
38 Leningrad St. 1792; Schefold, no. 368; Pfuhl, fig. 596.
39 C.V. Italy 927/1.
40 Greek and Roman Bronzes, 174, pl. 67b.
41 Cf. e.g. the maenad on the kalyx krater quoted in n. 16.
42 By the same hand, probably, a bottle in Hamburg; Pagenstecher, Arch. Anz. 1909, 1 f., no. 14. Near also London F582; C.V., 40/5. For the head rising from a flower cf. Apulian red figure, C.V., Fogg, pl. XXXV, 10a: C.V. Denmark, 258/1.
43 Pelikai: Hamburg, Pagenstecher, op. cit., no. 12; Lecce, C.V., Italy 194/1, 2, 4. Bottle: Louvre K620.
44 73, 8–20, 319: C.V., 41/7.
45 F560: C.V., 39/2.
46 F558: C.V., 39/1.
47 Op. cit. 294.
48 E.g. Furtwängler, Coll. Somzée, no. 96, pl. xxxvii (bottle); Pagenstecher, op. cit., no. 18 (unribbed pelike); Picard, op. cit., no. 35 (ribbed pelike with low foot); C.V., Fogg, XXXVI, 3 (squat lekythos of same shape as Stockport).
49 Op. cit., 178, pl. 68c.
50 Cf. Byvanck, op. cit., 35; Süsserott, op. cit., 192; Picard, , Sculpture, iii, 809.Google Scholar
51 Raccolta Guglielmi, 70, no. 80. Contemporary with the Erotes of the conical amphora, Berlin Inv. 4956 (Neugebauer, pl. 85; Buschor, Gr. Vasen, fig. 280; Pfuhl, fig. 754). The conical amphora lasted for some time: an early example in Birmingham (1607/85) with short neck and wide body has floral ornament not much later than the Stockport lekythos. The Berlin amphora itself is not much earlier than the elephant plate, about 280 B.C. (See Beazley, , EVP, 211 f.Google Scholar)
52 Texts: Overbeck, , Schriftquellen, 1937–1938Google Scholar; Pliny, , N.H., XXXV, 78Google Scholar; Lucian, , Herod, 4.Google Scholar The Erotes of an early fourth century Apulian, lekythos (R.A. 1936, 146 f.)Google Scholar are clearly children but have long wings.
53 Nicole, Supplement, no. 1192 = Sieglin, II, iii, fig. 32.
54 See Sieglin, II, iii, 22 f.; Edgar, , Cairo Catalogue, IV, pl. 13.Google ScholarThompson, Homer (Hesp. III, 315Google Scholar) argues that the Chatby find appears to date from the foundation of Alexandria and does not run into the third century B.C. Cf. Beazley, , B.S.A., XLI, 20.Google Scholar
55 Sieglin, II, iii, fig. 30= Breccia, Alexandria ad Aegyptum, fig. 151; Buschor, Gr. Vasen, fig. 271.
56 Seltman, , Greek Coins, 246Google Scholar; cf. Rostovtzeff, , Hellenistic World, 395.Google Scholar
57 Op. cit., 19.
58 Bulle, op. cit., fig. 4; Bieber, D., no. 44; H. T., fig. 217; Pfuhl, fig. 653; Wiegand, , Antike Fresken, 1943, pl. IXGoogle Scholar (in colour).
59 Pickard-Cambridge, op. cit., 214.
60 Vatican, Braccio Nuovo 53; Amelung, pl. 9; Heibig 19; Bieber, D., no. 27; H.T., fig. 35; Schefold, , Bildnisse, 207.Google Scholar On the relief in Constantinople (Mendel, II, no. 574; Bieber, D., no. 29; Poulsen, , From Ny Carlsberg, I, 80Google Scholar; Schefold, op. cit., 163, 1) Euripides holds a mask with a high onkos. Poulsen argues that it derives from a seated Euripides sculpted about 330 B.C. Euripides holds the mask in his right hand and a scroll in his left like the elderly comic poet on a relief of about 380 B.C. (Lyme Park: J.H.S. 1903, pl. 13; Robert, Masken, fig. 127; Winter, , KiB, 316/3.Google Scholar The scroll which is broken off in the left hand is not mentioned in the publications nor the fact that the poet is bearded and has deep vertical furrows in the forehead and on either side of the nose); the likeness of this earlier grave relief and the analogy of the Aeschylus suggest that the original of the Euripides also held a mask. Earlier tragic masks on the Pronomos vase (see below n. 65), the Peiraeus relief (Bieber, D., no. 41; H.T. fig. 66–7; Winter, KiB, 316/2) and in the hand of the Muse of Mantinea, (Jb. 1917, 79, fig. 45)Google Scholar show no heightened onkos, but even the last is derived from an original not later than 375 B.C.
61 Cf. the overseer on the Panathenaic amphora of 340/39 B.C. quoted above n. 36.
62 I.G. ii–iii 351, 457: texts in Pickard-Cambridge, op. cit., 137.
63 E.g. Schefold, , Untersuchungen, nos. 72Google Scholar, 228, 232, 336, 369, 370.
64 IIIustrated on the Menander relief (Lateran: Bieber, D., no. 129; H.T., fig. 223; Rostovtzeff, , Orient and Greece, pl. lxxxviiGoogle Scholar) and by a marble mask in Naples (Bieber, D., no. 174; H.T., fig. 280). For interpretation cf. Rylands Bulletin, XXXII, 104.
65 Naples 3240; A.R.V., 849/1; Pfuhl, fig. 575; F.R., pl. 143–5; Pickard-Cambridge, Dithyramb, figs. 11/12; Bieber, H.T., fig. 20.
66 Bell krater by Python in the Vatican: Trendall, , Paestan Pottery, 62Google Scholar, no. 113, pl. XVIII; Bieber, H.T., fig. 401.
67 F.R., III, 132 f.
68 Illustrated on an Apulian bell krater of the early fourth century, Bari 1364; Trendall, , Frühitaliotische, 26 n. 41Google Scholar, Eton painter; Bieber, H.T., fig. 40; Jb. 1917, fig. 59. Dionysus holds his own mask. Cf. E. Bacch. 455 f.
69 As on the Paestan bell krater in the Vatican, Bieber, D., no. 101; H.T., fig. 368; Trendall, Paestan Pottery, no. 48; Heydemann I, and on the Campanian skyphos, Milan, Bieber, D., no. 108; H.T., fig. 360; Zahn e; Beazley, , J.H.S., LXIII, 107.Google Scholar
70 For mythological prologue figures in Middle Comedy see Studies in Menander, 185.
71 For further examples and references to characters in surviving plays see my article in Rylands Bulletin, XXXII, III f.
72 Bieber, D., no. 118; H.T., fig. 393; Zahn p.
73 Bieber, D., no. 97; H.T., fig. 121; Haigh, Attic Theatre, fig. 23; Pickard-Cambridge, Dithyramb, fig. 32; Bethe, , Gr. Dichtung, pl. VIIIGoogle Scholar (wrongly called an aryballos, C.Q., XLII, 20).
73a Munich, Bieber, D., no. 75; H.T., fig. 116. British Museum, 1930–12–15–1.
74 Cf. above n. 6.
75 See above n. 66.
76 For the evidence see my Studies in Menander, 171.
77 Apulian bell krater, Leningrad; Bieber, D., no. 123; H.T., fig. 378; Zahn s.
78 See above n. 69: cf. also Paestan bell krater, London F 150; Bieber, H.T., fig. 387; Heydemann b; Trendall, , Paestan Pottery, no. 47, pl. IXd.Google Scholar
79 Robert, , Masken der neueren Altischen Komödie, pl. IGoogle Scholar; Bieber, D., no. 177; H. T., fig. 284.
80 6616; Bieber, D., no. 176; H.T., fig. 286; Simon, , Comicae Tabellae, 113, 124.Google Scholar
81 E.g. Athens 5032; Bieber, D., no. 157; H.T., fig. 281; Simon, , Comicae Tabellae, 111Google Scholar, 116 for identification and further examples.
82 Op. cit., 117, 123 (further examples of melon-hair: op. cit., 110).
83 Bieber, D., no. 49; H.T., figs. 520, 521.