Comic Theatrical Mask from Minturnae in the University of Pennsylvania Museum, November 2009

Comic Theatrical Mask from Minturnae
From vaults under Temple L
Late 1st century BC- early 1st century AD

# 32-36-62

This marble mask is modelled after the stage masks made of lighter material worn by actual actors. Marble or bronze masks like this one often decorated the entrances of theaters. They also graced the interiors and formal gardens of Roman houses.

Text from the U. Penn. Museum label.

and

Minturnae Excavations

The Museum excavated at Minturnae between 1931 and 1933, under the field direction of Jotham Johnson. Johnson cleared parts of Minturnae's walls and a significant part of its center, including the Republican forum with its three-sided portico and Capitolium, the Imperial forum, the Augustan theater, and five temples. As part of a division of finds the Museum received an important selection of marble sculptures, terracotta architectural decoration, pottery, and lamps.

The Museum was not the first to excavate at Colonia Minturnae. The site was initially explored by Domenico Venuri in 1787 and again by a Napoleonic-era Austrian general named Laval Nugent von Westmeath, who removed his finds to Zagreb. The Italian authorities carried out excavations in 1940 and from 1955 to the present. They have also undertaken the restoration of a number of monuments. Minturnae's finds are today found not only here in Philadelphia, but in Zagreb, the Naples Museum, and in the museum at the site.

Text from the U. Penn. Museum plaque.