Θεατρικά προσωπεία από τη Ρόδο ως πλαστικός διάκοσμος σε χρηστική κεραμική — Ι

Abstract

Theatrical masks from Rhodes as a plastic decoration in utilitarian pottery. Rescue excavations in the city of Rhodes during the last decades have brought to light numerous theatrical masks, which were used as relief decoration on pottery, specifically on the high pedestals and the supports of the Hellenistic braziers. This paper focuses on 74 terracotta theatrical masks and a mould. They can be divided in two groups based on their typology: (a) characteristic figures of the New Comedy and (b) Dionysian context (Dionysus, Pan, Silenes and Satyrs). Portable braziers were common cooking vessels, of which the manufacture has been dated from the second to the end of the first century B.C. Despite their wide distribution from Asia Minor and the islands of the Aegean Sea to Egypt, and from Syro-Palestine to South Italy and Sicily, scholars assume that their origin is from the islands of the Aegean Sea.