A Tanagra terracotta figure of a boy holding a comic mask. Circa 3rd Century B.C.
A Tanagra terracotta figure of a boy holding a comic mask. Circa 3rd Century B.C.
Standing with his right knee relaxed, the weight on his left leg, enveloped in a long himation coloured in white slip, gathered at his chest with his right hand, hidden beneath the drapery, the folds falling over his left hand, in which he holds a theatrical comic mask coloured in red slip, the boy with short curling red hair dressed with an umber wreath, standing on a rectangular integral plinth, 6½in (16.4cm) high, mounted. Sold for £8,400
Provenance: European private collection, from the late 1950s onwards. Accompanied by a thermoluminescence report from Oxford Authentication confirming that the piece is ancient.
Literature: For another example of a South Italian terracotta figure holding a theatrical mask, cf, R.A. Higgins, Tanagra and the Figurines, (London 1988), fig 168. This subject matter of a youth holding a comic mask is rare, it is more usual to find comic masks held by figures of the Muses of Tragedy and Comedy.
Bonhams. Antiquities, 29 Apr 2009. New Bond Street www.bonhams.com (Copyright © 2002-2009 Bonhams 1793 Ltd., Images and Text All Rights Reserved)