Project

Archaeology Project

My mask was done with the collaboration of my classmate Joseph Hamelin. We were given the task of making a small masked under the theme of Roman theatre. The typical characteristics of a Roman mask is grotesqueness and elegance. There is a general exaggeration of the facial features. The eyebrows and the mouth are the focal of the mask where the expression is formed. The eyes and mouth are generally huge for two different reasons. The eyes are huge to allow the actor to see while the mouth is big to allow the voice of the actor to be projected. Each masks were made to represent an emotion. There was anger, happiness, sadness, confusion, and many more. The masked where generally used to allow the audience that was sitting the back to understand the type of situation that was being depicted better based on the expression that was being expressed. The colors used to paint a mask each had a meaning which dependent on which theory you were following. For example, the color black would have meant that the character was feeling irritable. While the color white meant the person was feeling calm and was unemotional. In this case my mask is red and yellow. The color red means that the character would be courageous and amorous. While the color yellow meaning is not clear. In another theory the colors black, white yellow, red and grey represented hair color. The color red was only used in Roman comedies to represent a male servant or a old man. The color yellow on the other hand was used to represent young men or women. Nevertheless, my mask only has eyebrows which are red while the rest of his face is yellow. Colors such as black, white, ochre, sallow, pale yellow, ‘livid’, red and flushed red were used to represent skin color. These colors were probably there attempts to create a realistic shade of skin color. In my case, we used a bright yellow which would not have been considered acceptable back then. The mask that my partner and I created, based on my deduction, had the purpose of showing the emotion of shock. The eyebrows are raised while the mouth is wide opened which is the basic characteristics of a shocked expression.