Harvard Art Museums / Fogg Museum | Bush-Reisinger Museum | Arthur M. Sackler Museum

Object Number

1932.56.60

Title

Group of Actors

Classification

Sculpture

Work Type

sculpture, statuette

Date

1st to 3rd century CE

Places

Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Europe

Period

Roman Imperial period, Early

Culture

Roman

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/292060

Medium

Terracotta

Technique

Mold-made

Dimensions

13.2 cm h (5 3/16 in.)

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Dr. Harris Kennedy, Class of 1894

Accession Year

1932

Object Number

1932.56.60

Division

Asian and Mediterranean Art

Contact

am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu

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Description

In the Roman period, itinerant troupes of actors performed around Italy and the Roman World. This terracotta model of seven masked actors standing on the upper step of a plinth captures the sense of camraderie in the acting profession. They are bunched together like a modern chorus posing for a photograph, the outer members of the back row grasping the shoulders of their comrades in front of them. Their long-sleeved knee-length tunics and loose trousers may suggest that they are acting the role of a chorus of foreigners.

Label text from Roman Gallery Installation, September 16, 1999 through 2008.


Hard, bright orange-red clay with particles of mica (?). Remnants of white slip. Back sparsely modeled. No venthole. Bottom open.
Group of seven figures standing on a high two-stepped plinth. Two lower central figures seen in entirety wearing loose trousers, knee-length, long-sleeved tunics, and masks. Two flanking outer figures half visible. Masks of three figures in back row visible over heads of front figures. Hand of end figures in back row visible on shoulder of half-visible end figures. Compact group. Back of figures barely distinguishable.

NBR, Master's thesis

George M. A. Hanfmann, Greek Art and Life, An Exhibition Catalogue, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1950), no. 176.

Greek Art and Life: From the Collections of the Fogg Art Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and Private Lenders, Fogg Art Museum, 03/07/1950 - 04/15/1950

Roman Gallery Installation (long-term), Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 09/16/1999 - 01/20/2008

32Q: 3620 University Study Gallery, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 01/23/2019 - 05/13/2019

• 

  Fellowship, in Image and in Practice

  Collections July 8, 2020

• 1932.56.55

  Slave or actor with yoke

  Sculpture
• 1932.56.56

  Standing actor

  Sculpture

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu