A GREEK BRONZE MIME

HELLENISTIC PERIOD, CIRCA 2ND-1ST CENTURY B.C.

Details

A GREEK BRONZE MIME
HELLENISTIC PERIOD, CIRCA 2ND-1ST CENTURY B.C.
6 5/8 in. (16.8 cm.) high

Provenance

Dr. Irving F. and Mrs. Doris Hyman Burton, Huntington Woods, Michigan, acquired 1960.
Private Collection, Midwestern U.S.
Stair Galleries, Hudson, New York, 26 June 2015, lot 645.

Literature

D.G. Mitten and S.F. Doeringer, Master Bronzes from the Classical World, Mainz, 1967, p. 122, no. 121.

Exhibited

Cambridge, The Fogg Art Museum; City Art Museum of Saint Louis; The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Master Bronzes from the Classical World, 4 December 1967-30 June 1968.

Sale room notice

This Lot is Withdrawn.

Lot Essay

According to S. Doeringer (op. cit., p. 122), "The lack of mask identifies this bronze as a mime, rather than a comic actor. Physically deformed, or made up to look so, these entertainers were often itinerant, providing a vaudeville repertoire of playlets mimicking everyday situations. This figure's enormous phallus, bald pate, bulbous nose, misshapen cranium with four warts and dejected expression were characteristic of the mime or buffoon who appealed to the Hellenistic love of the grotesque."

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