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comedy6th-4th Century BCE Price: $ 95 Catalog # REP1 - Com |
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This happy fellow is a mask that would have been used in Greek comedies such as Aristophanes' The Birds or Lysistrata. None of the original masks survive from the days of the Greek theatre, however, marble masks like the picture to the left are found as part of sculptural decoration of buildings, giving us a good idea of what the Greek masks looked like. The original piece (below) is currently housed in the National Archeological Museum in Athens. While we imagine the Greeks used colors in their masks, we don't know what kind of palette they chose. We believe they may have painted their masks and sculptures flesh-colored. Some contouring has been added to the beard where it was rubbed out in the original. Greek masks also would have included a wig and covered the entire head. |
This mask is made in neoprene, a semi-rigid, non-toxic latex.
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In
experimenting with this mask, the genius of the sculpture manifests in the
sheer number of contradictory expressions as
seen from various angles: one moment it is zany and happy; the next it is
sly and devious; then stupidly intoxicated. The actor's ability to see
is greatly impaired by the small size of the eye holes, forcing the
performer to rely upon a finely-honed sense of the performance space and
turn his or her whole head to actually see anything.
