IMPORTANT ARCHITECTURAL ELEMENT featuring a mask of the Grea - Lot 248

Lot 248
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Estimation :
70000 - 80000 EUR
IMPORTANT ARCHITECTURAL ELEMENT featuring a mask of the Grea - Lot 248
IMPORTANT ARCHITECTURAL ELEMENT featuring a mask of the Great Comedy in carved granular marble. Presented on an adapted bronze base. Roman period. Dim. : 63 x 49 x 15,8 cm Tragic masks had a curious feature, the ogkos. Pollux says that this was the name given to "the upper part of the mask that rises in the shape of a lambda". It is, as a great number of monuments show, a conventional enlargement of the forehead, most often concealed under the wig. The purpose of the oncos seems to have been, on the one hand, to re-establish the normal proportions of the body, distorted by the artificial padding of the torso and by the high cothurns, and probably also to give the tragic figures a more imposing appearance. This accessory sometimes reaches disproportionate proportions, but its height is very variable. It is found only in the tragic masks; however, some of these do not even have one. The mask is, even more than the costume, a process of characterization of the character. It makes it possible to identify the hero from the start. The actor enters the stage wearing a mask with a metal resonator to amplify his voice. The troupe is composed of slaves or freedmen. In most cases, there are five histrions (actors), tibicines (flutists), cantares (singers), dancers, musicians, extras and stagehands. It is directed by a leader who is called dominus gregis. The actor, slave or freedman, is not a citizen. But paradoxically, actors were real stars. Rich and famous, they were socially accepted and became the favourites of the Great Ones.
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