Mask of Bacchus

Acquisition of bronze mask of Bacchus/Dionysius. Hellenistic, Greek 200-100 BC. The mask once formed the handle attachment of a situla or wine-bucket. The ring mount supporting the handle is missing. This type of handle attachment, portraying Dionysos, seems to have originated in Ptolemaic Egypt where the god was equated with Egyptian Osiris. The two silver horns may have been added in more recent times. The mask has been in England since about 1700 when it was in the collection of Dr Richard mead 9167301754). After his death the item was sold at auction and purchased by Sir Paul Methuen in whose family it remained until they sent it for sale in 1983. Formerly Mead and Methuen Collections.