Document Actions

Mask of a river god (Acheloos)

 

TI-9  

Mask of a river god (Acheloos), Inv. T I-9

Front side out of the mould, back side hollow, roughly smoothed.

Light brown (7.5YR 7/3-7/4) clay. Abundant white engobe, especially on the face, horns, bending clay strip and beard.

Painting: Beard light brown (7.5YR 7/5) with darker streaks. Alternating red and blue painting above the forehead. Vivid red on the mouth; traces of red also on the cheeks.

Provenance: From the Margaritis Collection, acquired by Bruno Sauer in 1899.

State of preservation: Forehead, nose and mouth sintered. Injuries below the horns, more pronounced on the right than on the left. Bruises on the nose and on the edge of the beard. Cut on the right side of the chin.

Dimensions: H: 8,7 cm; W: 6,4 cm; D: 3,2 cm.

References: D. Graen – M. Recke (eds.), Herakles & Co (Gießen 2010) 158 f. fig. 91; M. Recke – O. Schneider (eds.), Erhaltenswert. Archäologische und bibliophile Schätze für die Zukunft bewahren. Eine Ausstellung der Antikensammlung und der Universitätsbibliothek Gießen (Gießen 2009) 22. 60 fig. 13; W. Zschietzschmann, Die Antiken der Universität, Gießener Hochschulblätter 5, 1957, fig. 3

 

Description: Small horns interrupt the elongated contour line of the bearded head. The face stands out as a white rhombus standing on end from the beard and forehead hair. The full beard, which ends in a slightly protruding curve, is streaked in a darker (grey) shade. At the base, below the upward curved mouth, a beardless triangle is left out. The upper lip beard forms a thin arc applied in brown colour between the closed lips and the strong nose. Heavy upper eyelids, set off from the orbits by shallow pits, make the widely spaced eyeballs protrude spherically.
 
Commentary: The horns are a characteristic of bearded river gods (Acheloos). Between the hair and the forehead, where red and blue traces of colour could indicate a wreath, the transition is obscured by pronounced sintering. Two Campanian antefixes (forehead bricks), both probably from the same matrix, are suitable iconographic parallels[1]. With their height of about 23-24 cm, however, the roof terracottas decorated a larger building. Comparable is also a Great Greek Silens head[2], which lacks only the horns to the river god. It measures 6.5 cm in height and is therefore closer in dimensions to the Giessen 'Acheloos' than the antefixes[3].
Protome T I-9 resembles the aforementioned specimens in the contour line and in the way the faces are bordered by hair and beard. However, the beards of the antefixes literally intrude on the faces; therefore, they appear visually smaller, an impression that is emphasised by the plastic rendering of the curved upper lip beard, brows and eyelids. In addition, the lips of the pieces in Leipzig and Berlin are cut straight and the beard starts directly at the full lower lip; the corners of the mouth of the Silens, however, are slightly raised, just like those of the Giessen 'Acheloos'. The latter lacks only the shallow groove of the orbital present in the other three specimens, which is replaced by a caesura between the upper eyelid and the orbital.

The piercing of the hollow upper rim suggests that the protome was intended as a votive offering to be hung in a sanctuary.
As far as the attribution is concerned, it should be borne in mind that the Margaritis collection, to which the 'Mask of Acheloos' belonged, consists mainly of Boeotian objects. However, among the terracottas from Boeotia, no example has yet been found that is as close to the Giessen river god as the Campanian antefixes mentioned. S. Mollard-Besques points out an interesting parallel that suggests a matrix transfer Boeotia - Taranto[4]. However, this is neither an 'Acheloos' nor a Silen. The bearded face, framed by curls and with the plastically indicated beard starting just below the broad mouth, probably represents the mask god Dionysus[5].
A characteristic of the 'Acheloos protome' is the beardless triangle below the mouth, as it is also found on symposiast figures from late Archaic Taranto[6], but the darker tone colour makes a Tarentine workshop as the place of manufacture of the Giessen example less likely.

Determination: End of 6th/beginning of 5th century BC; Campania (?)


 TI-9a    TI-9b

 

[1] V. Kästner, Drei Antefixe aus Italien. Festgabe anlässlich der Winckelmannsfeier des Instituts für Klassische Archäologie der Universität Leipzig am 11. Dezember 2000, p. 3 and 5 figs. 3 and 4; ibid., Archaische Baukeramik der Westgriechen (Diss. Humboldt-Univ. Berlin 1982) 59-61 pl. 20;  E. Paul, Antike Welt in Ton (Leipzig 1959) 103 no. 373 pl. 95; H. Koch, Dachterrakotten aus Kampanien (Berlin 1912), 70 pl. 18, 5.

[2] H. Herdejürgen, Die tarentinischen Terrakotten des 6. bis 4. Jahrhunderts v. Chr. im Antikenmuseum Basel (Mainz 1971) 37 f. no. 5 pl. 1; Koch 1912, 70 pl. 18, 1.

[3] Kästner ibid. 2000,  5.

[4] From Tanagra B 98, from Taranto B 520, Mollard-Besques 1954, 17 pl. 12 and pl. 47.

[5] Another parallel in Heidelberg, B. Neutsch, Die Welt der Griechen im Bilde der Originale der Heidelberger Universitätssammlung (Heidelberg 1948) 41 no. 17 fig. 19.

[6] A. Bencze, Symposia Tarentina, BaBesch 85, 2010, 32 fig. 9;  Herdejürgen 1971, 38 no. 9 pl. 3. p. 77 pl. 26 c; S. Mollard-Besques 1954, B 501. 510. 516; W. Wamser-Krasznai, Studien zu den Typen der Tarentiner Symposiasten (Diss. Justus- Liebig- Universität Gießen 2002) URL: http://geb.uni-giessen.de/geb/volltexte/2003/1184, 146 no. 84 fig. 16; 150 no. 130 fig. 22; W. Wamser-Krasznai, Für Götter gelagert. Studien zu Typen und Deutung Tarentiner Symposiasten (Budapest 2013). On the enthroned god from Paestum, the chin beard is connected to the lower lip by a narrow bar, E. Langlotz, Die Kunst der Westgriechen (München 1963) 62 pl. 4.