Quite a different physiognomy is represented by the second mask (No. 331), which shews a round face, with full cheeks and a small forehead, with which the nose does not range in a straight line, as on the other mask; the mouth is but small, and has thick lips; the eyes are shut, and the eyelashes, as well as the eyebrows, which are joined, are tolerably represented.
A third mask of much thicker gold-plate was found covering the face of one of the three bodies which lay with the head to the east.
No. 332. Gold Mask. Sepulchre IV. Size 3:8, about.
GOLDEN PORTRAIT MASKS.
This mask, of which I give the engraving (No. 332), exhibits again a totally different physiognomy: the wrinkles to the right and left above the mouth, and the expression of the very large mouth with thin lips, can leave no doubt that we have here the portrait of a man of more advanced age. The forehead is very large and so are the eyes, which are open and have neither lashes nor brows marked: the nose has been much pressed by the stones and is out of shape. In this mask is preserved part of the skull of the man whose face it covered.
The physiognomies represented by these three masks are so widely different from each other, and so altogether different from the ideal types of the statues of gods and heroes, that there cannot be the slightest doubt that every one of them represents the likeness of the deceased whose face it covered. Had it not been so, all the masks would have represented the same ideal type.
A fourth heavy golden mask was found at the head of another of the three bodies which had their heads turned to the east. This object was bent double, and looked so little like a mask that I took it for a helmet, and described it as such in my letter published in the Times of the 27th December last; but, having unbent it, I see that it has nothing of the shape of a cap and can only have been intended for a mask to cover the face of the body: it had probably been accidentally removed in the process of cremation. At first sight its engraving (No. 326, p. 211) resembles more a jacket than anything else; but, on closer examination, we find that it represents a lion's head, whose ears and eyes are distinctly seen. Being of the purest gold, it is so soft that several pieces have been broken away, as, for example, one from the vertex of the head, another from the nose, a third from the jaws, and a fourth from the mane, to the left of the spectator; but they are preserved, and can easily be added by an able goldsmith. But still, even in its present defective condition, the nose and the large upper jaws of the lion are distinctly seen. To the right of the spectator we see in the rim two small round perforations, and there are similar perforations in the missing piece of the left side. They must certainly have been used to fasten the mask on another object. I call particular attention to the disproportionately small and but very rudely represented eyes and ears of the lion's head.
Neither in Homer nor in any of the later classics do we find any allusion to the custom of burying the dead with masks representing their portrait, or with any masks at all. Masks of wood, which however represent but an ideal type and no portrait, are sometimes found in Egyptian tombs.[306] In a tomb near Kertch there was also found the mask of a woman, which may represent a portrait.[307] A bronze mask was found at Nola.[308]