'Hidden Identities'. Observations on the 'Grinning' Phoenician Masks of Sardinia (original) (raw)
Related papers
FROM THE EAST TO GREECE AND BACK AGAIN: TERRACOTTA GORGON MASKS IN A PHOENICIAN CONTEXT
In Phéniciens d'Orient et d'Occident: Mélanges Josette Elayi, vol. II, edited by A. Lemaire. With B. Dufour and F. Pfitzmann. Paris: Maisonnueve, 289-99., 2014
Three fragmentary terracottas excavated from the southern Phoenician site of Tel Dor, Israel raise key questions about objects produced through cultural contact. Each bears the head of a Greek apotropaic figure, the Gorgon Medusa. These gorgoneia are typologically indebted to Greek roof tiles but did not function as such. Moreover, they cannot be understood to signal formal sanctuaries at Dor. A review of their form and comparanda is followed by a critique of foreign terminology used to describe their deposition (favissa). The discussion considers what is now known about Phoenician artistic traditions, generally; cult masks in particular; and how the gorgoneion type fits both.
21: INQUIRIES INTO ART, HISTORY, AND THE VISUAL, 2024
In sixteenth-century Florence a variety of sculptural or architectural ornament was developed in the shape of animal masks, often featuring several animals or parts of different animals in one object, and the presence of eyes half hidden behind the surface mask. Michelangelo’s New Sacristy is a main locus for the development of these ornaments, but they soon spread over the city. Although sixteenth-century viewers called them “grotesques”, they differ from the two-dimensional variety inspired by the Domus Aurea because they consistently use strange, hybrid animal features that are not part of the repertoire of mythological hybrid beasts such as griffins, commonly used in grotesques inspired by the Roman tradition. They also stand out because they share these animal features with parade and tournament armour of the same period. Their formal characteristics, as well as their similarity to the ornament of contemporary parade armour, little studied until now, raises many questions about their origins, meaning, circumstances of creation and use, and possible impact. These ornaments also share many formal and compositional features with the masks made in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries by the peoples of the Northwest Coast of North America. They share a duplication or triplication of animal shapes, the presence of eyes behind the mask, incrustation and other graphical patterns, and a particular patterning, or spreading, of animal features across the object they cover. The central question this article seeks to address is therefore: is it possible to develop an approach to these masks, both Italian and North American, that can suggest a common ground, in form, function, impact, or sets of beliefs that drove their creation and use? The analysis of Northwestern Coast mask design by Franz Boas, Claude Lévi-Strauss and Philippe Descola will serve, first, as an instrument to better understand the composition of sixteenth-century animal-shaped masks, because they make the viewer aware of aspects of their design that remain under the radar in traditional stylistic or iconographical interpretation. Second, the similarities between these two groups of artefacts will point to shared sets of beliefs in nature as a source of endless transformation, and in the fundamental kinship of humans and animals.
2021
This project aims to investigate the part played by different historical and modern perceptions of Phoenician culture and identity in the presentation and interpretation of what is (and has been over the last 100-150 years) regarded as Phoenician material culture in different Mediterranean and European museums. Given the chequered history of perceptions of Phoenicians in different national and intellectual contexts from antiquity until relatively recently, it seems likely that perspectives on what constitutes objects of Phoenician material culture will also have varied from place to place and from time to time. The research is based on an appreciation of accounts of, and attitudes to, Phoenicians from antiquity onwards, which have undoubtedly fed into more modern European views. This is gained from key ancient (Greek, Roman and Biblical) sources, as well as more modern (especially 19th and 20th century) European writings, both literary and archaeological/historical. The core of the research focuses on museum displays and records pertaining to Phoenician material culture. Museum displays and archives are investigated to see what is identified as Phoenician, why it is identified as such, and how it is interpreted, as well as whether views of what is Phoenician have changed over time. The project therefore focuses on interpretation aspects at the level of the museum, tracking mappable trends, at the level of the labelling tracking stereotypes, and at the level of artefacts tracking stylistic definitions of the term Phoenician. It lays these patterns against the literary perceptions, showing the importance of contextuality within the framework of defining and interpreting Phoenician identity.
L’uso di maschere ha una lunga tradizione nel Mediterraneo orientale, dove gli esemplari più antichi risalgono al Neolitico e un loro impiego senza soluzione di continuità è documentato dalla fine del Bronzo Medio all’età Persiana. Durante l’età del Ferro, questa tradizione viene proseguita dai Fenici, che rinnovano il repertorio delle maschere, creando nuove tipologie e giungendo ad una resa più naturalistica del volto umano e delle sue espressioni. Nel corso dei loro spostamenti e stanziamenti attraverso il Mediterraneo, i Fenici mantennero questa pratica fino all’emergere delle maschere teatrali e al declino di Cartagine intorno alla metà del II sec. a.C. Questo articolo offre una panoramica sintetica e diacronica del corpus di maschere fenicie e puniche e dei loro antecedenti, illustrando la varietà di tipi, contesti e possibili usi, a testimonianza del ruolo centrale assolto dai Fenici nello sviluppo delle maschere e dei rituali ad esse intimamente connessi.
“Fingere l’identità” Ten Years on: Phoenicians beyond Identity
Rivista di Studi Fenici 50 (https://open.rstfen.cnr.it/index.php/rsf/issue/view/10), 2022
Ten years ago, on the occasion of the publication of the fortieth number of the Rivista di Studi Fenici, I had the opportunity to begin my line of research on the problem of Phoenician identity. The main purpose of my contribution published in that issue, which had the emblematic title “Fingere l’identità fenicia”, was to explore some of the problems that I considered fundamental to a renewed formulation of the question (which was first raised in 1963 by Sabatino Moscati). A decade on from that contribution, therefore, on the occasion of the fiftieth issue of the Rivista di Studi Fenici, I would like to revisit the main aspects of the problem, exploring some parts of it in more depth. Above all, I aim to reflect on the point we have now reached in relation to a theme that is central – as identity certainly is – to studies dedicated to Phoenician culture.
is paper focuses on the analysis of some typical western Phoenician ceramic shapes from an artisanal perspective, by taking into account the manufacturing process of pottery production. Ceramic material has been sampled from a range of sites on the island of Sardinia, namely the Phoenician settlements of Nora and Pani Loriga, both in the southern part of the island, and nuraghe S'Urachi, in west-central Sardinia. e ceramic functional categories of cooking and table ware, and amphorae make up the sample. rough visual inspection and the analysis of X-rays scans, manufacturing techniques and the modelling of vessels in the context of the ceramic operative sequence are investigated. Peculiar patterns of Phoenician ceramic artisanal traditions are outlined, and the outcomes of interaction with local communities in the development of speci c colonial ceramic practices in the following Punic period are explored.
Loading Preview
Sorry, preview is currently unavailable. You can download the paper by clicking the button above.
Related papers
Graeco-Phoenician Figurines in Phoenicia. A Medley of Imports, Derivatives, Imitations, and Hybrids
in Bonnet, C., Galoppin, T., Guillon, E., Luaces, M., Lätzer-Lasar, A., Lebreton, S., Porzia, F., Rüpke, J. and Urciuoli, E. (eds.), Naming and Mapping the Gods in the Ancient Mediterranean: Spaces, Mobilities, Imaginaries, De Gruyter, Berlin-Boston, pp.473-492, 2022
Figurines féminines nues. Proche-Orient, Égypte, Nubie, Méditerranée orientale, Asie centrale (Néolitique-IVe ap. J.-C.). Édité par Sylvie Donnat, Régine Hunziker-Rodewald et Isabelle Weygand. 2019, 384 p., ill. n&b. et coul., br. – 119€, 978-2-7018-0532-0, 2019, 2019
S. Valentini, G. Guarducci, and N. Laneri (eds.), Archaeology of Symbols: ICAS I. Proceedings of the First International Congress on the Archaeology of Symbols (MaReA vol 3), Oxford: Oxbow, 2024