Double-Sided Relief with Theater Masks

The rectangular, two-sided relief is carved on one side with two confronted theater masks, one representing a bearded man, who is accompanied by a scepter, and the other a youthful male beside a lyre. Sculpted in low relief on the reverse side is a mask of a balding satyr before a thyrsus and basket, symbols of Bacchus. Relief sculpture of this type, of which a number of others are known from Pompeii, Rome, and Ostia, stood on pillars and decorated the courtyards of villas or their gardens.