Campanian Figurine: Gorgoneion Mask
Inv. No.: 90.005
Provenance: Campania (Capua?)
Date: 550-500 BC
Height: 66mm
Width: 65mm
Gift of an anonymous donor.
A terracotta relief plaque in the form of a frontal face of a Gorgon, a gorgoneion. The round face is framed by two rows of tight curls. The eyes are almond-shaped and there are two fangs visible at each end of the wide, smiling mouth. A protruding tongue also hangs over the chin. The clay is buff-coloured and a diagonal break has been repaired. Gorgoneions were depictions of the mythical female monster, Medusa, whose face turned men into stone if they looked at it. They were widely used as apotropaic devices, especially on architecture. This example was probably attached to a wooden coffin.
Function:
Probably an attachment on a wooden coffin; used to ward off evil.
Manufacture:
A mould-made appliqué with a flat back.
Bibliography:
Frontisi-Ducroux, F., "In the Mirror of the Mask", A City of Images: Iconography and Society in Ancient Greece, trans. D. Lyons, Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton University Press, 1989, 151-164, especially 156-160. , Charles Ede Catalogue, XI (1990), 30.
Greek and Roman Terracotta Sculpture
Vassilika, E., Greek and Roman Art, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1998, 44.
Comparanda:
Bonghi Jovoni, M., "Artigiani e botteghe bell'Italia preromana. Appunti e riflessioni per un sistema di analisi" in M. Bonghi Jovino, Artigiani e Botteghe nell'Italia Preromana: Studi sulla Coroplastica di Area Etrusco-Laziale-Campana, Roma, "L'Erma" di Bretschneider, 1990, Fig. 4 (very similar).
Carratelli, G. P. (ed.), The Western Greeks, exhibition catalogue, Palazzo Grassi, Venice, 1996, 298 (various terracotta appliqués).
Higgins, R. A., Catalogue of the Terracottas in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, British Museum, second edition, London, British Museum, 1970, I (Plates), Plate 171, 1251 and 1251 bis; see also Volume 1: Text (1969), 341 (terracotta antefixes from Taras).
Vassilika, E., Greek and Roman Art, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1998, Plate 20 (very similar).
Vlassopoulou, C., "Decorated Architectural Terracottas from the Athenian Acropolis; Catalogue of Exhibition", Hesperia, 59, No. 1 (1990), Nos. 35 a and b (Attic terracotta Gorgoneion antefixes).