Text

theses

Satyric and comedic masks, in addition to lively-seeming heads that could almost be masks, appear with pattern-like regularity wherever the Romans had a foothold; however, the near instinctive impulse to assign a straightforward, Hellenistically-derived Dionysiac message to the borders where these faces reside has rendered both masks and heads almost invisible to further iconographic study. The masks are more thoroughly examined as remnants of Classical theatre than in studies of antique mosaics, while the heads that supplant them are treated neither in theatrical studies nor, aside from stylistic analyses, in art historical scholarship. The assumption that satyrs (and their depictions) in the Roman world retained the same meanings and functions that had been given to them by their Greek originators ignores fundamental distinctions between the two cultures. This study follows in the tradition of scholars who have jettisoned the belief that iconological interpretation inevitably accompanies iconographic appropriation. This study uses the distinctly Roman cultural background that led to the use of masks as border motifs in early imperial Roman mosaics, and the ways in which that cultural heritage may have influenced the a preference for more lifelike and idealized heads instead of masks, to gain insight into the role and function of the supernatural wilderness in Roman life and iconography.

ETD_6835

Ph.D.

Includes bibliographical references

by Mieke Paulsen Bahmer

doi:10.7282/T3MG7RGJ

ETD doctoral

The author owns the copyright to this work.