Ancient Roman Bronze Pin Finial with Actor

£ 395.00

A very fine Ancient Roman garment pin finial in the shape of an actor. The garment pin itself, a fragment of which still survives, was made from iron while the decorative finial was cast from bronze. The finial depicts a male figure standing straight with his head tilted to the side and his hands clasped in front of him. The man’s head is framed by the long wavy hair and his face is contorted in a grotesque open-mouthed grin, almost identical to a type of stock character mask comedic actors wore during performances.

Weight without the stand: 22.8g

Height without the stand: 9.1cm

Date: 1st-2nd century AD
Provenance: Ex German art market, 2000s. Acquired from an EU collector living in London. From the collection of Surrey, UK, gentleman.
Condition: The finial is in very fine condition, covered with dark green patination and earthly encrustation. The iron displays iron oxide. Supplied with a custom-made stand.

In stock

SKU: SK-185 Category: Tags: ,

Spectacle was an integral part of life in the Roman world. According to the ancient historian Livy, the earliest theatrical activity in Rome took the form of dances with musical accompaniment, introduced to the city by the Etruscans in 364 B.C. The literary record also indicates that Atellanae, a form of native Italic farce, were performed at Rome by a relatively early date. In 240 B.C., full-length, scripted plays were introduced to Rome by the playwright Livius Andronicus, a native of the Greek city of Tarentum in southern Italy. The earliest Latin plays to have survived intact are the comedies of Plautus (active ca. 205–184 B.C.), which were principally adaptations of Greek New Comedy. Latin tragedy also flourished during the second century B.C. While some examples of the genre treated stories from Greek myth, others were concerned with famous episodes from Roman history.

Weight 69.5 g
Dimensions W 4.3 x H 10.1 cm
Culture

Metal

,

Region

Reference: For a similar item: The British Museum, item 1975,0801.6

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