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Masked actors: mosaic from the House of the Tragic ANCIENTPLANET ONLINE JOURNAL ANCIENTPLANET ONLINE Poet, Pompeii, Italy. 1st century BCE-1st c. CE. Naples 2 Archaeological Museum. [Credit: WikiCommons] Unmasking Ancient Colour JOURNAL ANCIENTPLANET ONLINE Colour and the Classical Theatre Mask By Andrea Sinclair M.A. he purpose of this article is to provide the reader with an overview of the characteristics of traditional T theatre masks from the Hellenistic Greek and the Roman Imperial periods. The primary literary source employed to illustrate this discussion is the Onomasticon of Julius Pollux, which will be examined from the point of view of the importance of colour to convey meaning in the creation of a theatrical mask. Who introduced masks, prologues, the reconstructions of classical theatre when number of performers and such things is I envision ancient theatre performance. unknown. Perhaps this may be blamed on my own —Aristotle, Poetics, 1449b background in theatre design. But this assumption of austerity would be faulty, The idea of theatre performance in ancient for theatre performance in antiquity Greece and Rome conjures up a variety of was a different animal, less refined and images for me, one of vast semi-circular more diverse in its application and unlike auditoriums, layered schema with elegant contemporary theatre, all actors wore columns and facades, audiences dressed masks. in their ‘Sunday best’ reclining leisurely on steeped seating and, of course, the The intention of this article is to elaborate performers. Somehow I cannot help but on a topic relating to theatre from ancient Masked actors: mosaic from the House of the Tragic be influenced by the elegance of modern Rome and Greece that appears to be sadly Poet, Pompeii, Italy. 1st century BCE-1st c. CE. Naples 3 Archaeological Museum. [Credit: WikiCommons] ANCIENTPLANET | VOL. 4 [2013] ARCHAEOLOGY | GREECE AND ROME Theatre masks: architectural relief from the Roman theatre at Side, Turkey. [Credit: Bruce Allardice] absent. A factor which one could argue is qualities of these very visual theatrical tools as crucial to the nature of an object as its were an important feature of their legibility, form and texture: the colour of these masks but this legibility ought also to entail the worn by performers in early plays. Much use of colour. I consider this article to be an literature has applied itself to the physical opportunity to discuss this facet of ancient characteristics of masks from late antiquity mask and also, unlike academic publications, and their relation to earlier Greek masks to take advantage of the visual nature of a from the Classical and Hellenistic periods, magazine format by providing a range of with particular emphasis placed upon masks relevant colour images. from comedy. However, there appears to be little or no discussion of the nature of When we think of Greek and Roman colours associated with these highly visual theatre masks our own perception is highly objects. ‘coloured’ by the extant material that we have available to us as representative of these Classical masks were intended to provide early performance tools. Sadly, because strong visual cues to an audience in what the original masks were constructed from was, to all intents and purposes, a large degradable materials, such as leather, fabric performance space. This goal was achieved and fibre, we do not have examples of the by using full head/helmet masks with broad original artefacts. Instead, we are dependant and exaggerated features. The sculptural on imagery of masks from the visual arts ANCIENTPLANET ONLINE JOURNAL ANCIENTPLANET ONLINE 4 ARCHAEOLOGY | GREECE AND ROME ANCIENTPLANET ONLINE JOURNAL ANCIENTPLANET ONLINE The venue for masked drama: a Roman theatre from Bosra, Syria. [Credit: WikiCommons] and some (few) references in texts for the brief overview of the theatrical context with physical nature of these objects. which we are dealing. The performance of public theatre in Greece and Rome has The visual evidence consists of two a long and illustrious history which one primary sources: the two dimensional, could argue remains with us today with via wall paintings, ceramics and mosaics contemporary interpretations of the plays and the three dimensional, from sculpted of renowned tragedians such as Euripides, terracotta figurines and from architectural Sophocles, Aeschylus and comedic writers ornaments. Of the aforementioned types, such as Aristophanes, Menander and only mosaics and wall paintings employ Plautus. colour, and I would hazard that you, the reader, when thinking of a mask, conjure up In ancient Greece plays were an important a monochrome image most likely related component of public festivals and were to masks from architectural and sculptural designed to be performed by a reasonably sources. small group of actors. This troupe comprised three core actors who would perform all Theatre Performance in Greece and the speaking roles, in addition, there was Rome a chorus of up to fifteen performers who sung and danced and guided the audience To begin this discussion, I will provide a through the storyline. Finally there was the 5 ANCIENTPLANET | VOL. 4 [2013] ARCHAEOLOGY | GREECE AND ROME Three actors from Greek comedy: Apulian bell-krater. 2nd century BCE. National Archaeological Museum, Spain. [Credit: WikiCommons] potential for a non specific amount of non- 4th century Athenian drama and comedy speaking roles, such as attendants, slaves, would have been constructed to suit the guards or citizens. All characters, actors, requirements of a given play and playwright. chorus and extras were masked, and all It was not until the second half of the fourth parts were performed by men. century and the plays of Menander and his contemporaries that costume and mask Within the theatre space, the action proper types became clearly defined. The grotesque would take place on a raised stage, while padding and phalli of the Old Comedy were the chorus would sing and dance in the dispensed with and masks too were adapted semi-circular orchestra at the front of this into more rigid characters. This does not stage. It is worth noting that with the mean however, that a playwright could not limited number of actors performing all still adapt or invent masks to suit his own speaking roles, the use of mask would requirements. have been a convenient device to facilitate scene, character, and particularly, gender What is a mask and what was a changes in a performance. But this may not classical mask? be considered the sole motivation behind the choice of mask for performance. In any dictionary a mask may be defined in a variety of ways: as the likeness of a The earliest use of mask was not bound face, a covering for all, or part of a face, an ANCIENTPLANET ONLINE JOURNAL ANCIENTPLANET ONLINE to character types and thus the masks of object worn as a disguise, or to amuse, or 6 ARCHAEOLOGY | GREECE AND ROME ANCIENTPLANET ONLINE JOURNAL ANCIENTPLANET ONLINE Tragic actors: Roman fresco. 1st century CE. Archaeological Museum of Palermo, Italy. [Credit: G. Dall’Orto, WikiCommons] frighten others. When employing this term a mask that may be worn in performance ‘mask’, I am referring to the head coverings are the presence of eye sockets, breathing in the likeness of beings (divine, human holes and suspension holes. They also must and animal) that were employed in the be light and durable. There is absolutely no performance of theatrical plays in Greece point in describing a ceramic mask as a per- and Rome in the classical period (500 BCE- formance mask, these on the contrary, must 300 CE). I use the term ‘head coverings’ be either ornamental copies of an original, intentionally, since it must be emphasised or replicas perhaps intended for votive use. that a mask in the context of classical drama was not simply a covering for the forepart of The term used in Greek literature to describe an actors head. Rather, it was a combination a mask was prosȏpon (πρόσωπον). This noun of hair, headdress and the face. may be literally translated as ‘something which is (placed) before the eyes’, that is, For the intentions of this work I clearly dis- a covering for the face, but it can also be tinguish between a mask that is designed used to refer to the face proper. Another to be worn on a human head and a repro- word which may be used in the discussion duction of a human face. And it is worth of masks in antiquity is protomȇ, (προτομή) noting that the features required to identify which actually refers to a reproduction of a 7 ARCHAEOLOGY | GREECE AND ROME Satyr mask: marble (source unknown). 2nd century CE. ANCIENTPLANET ONLINE JOURNAL ANCIENTPLANET ONLINE 8 Capitoline Museum, Rome [Credit: WikiCommons] ARCHAEOLOGY | GREECE AND ROME bust, head, or face, and may therefore, not From the fact that these sources are often JOURNAL ANCIENTPLANET ONLINE be considered crucial to this discussion. (It employed in literature to describe mask is however, of value to an examination of characteristics from Greece and Rome the origins of masks). may lead you to the realisation that our information pool is indeed small. However, The sources for masked performance we have one detailed account by a classical author left to discuss. It is a considerable disadvantage to mod- ern scholarship that we have only limited The primary textual source employed textual evidence for the use and descrip- in literature for mask in antiquity is the tion of masks in antiquity. While we do have Onomasticon (Ονομαστικόν) of Julius Pollux secondary sources, we are casting about in of Naucratis, (2nd century CE). Now this text the dark with regard to the original objects. is a form of thesaurus and was intended Aristotle in the Poetics, his discussion of by its author as a general description of 4th century Greek theatrical practice, refers a variety of topics from geography to sparingly and somewhat dismissively to the astronomy and so forth.

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