Mold for a Male Head (1–300 CE): Art, History and Details

Mold for a Male Head (1–300 CE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Now cracked and fragmentary, this terracotta mold would have been used to produce a male head, also of terracotta. Modern impressions, whether made physically (with clay or other material) or digitally, can approximate the appearance of ancient objects made with this mold, albeit without added pigment. Separate molds may have been used to create a back for the head, and perhaps a body as well.

Object facts

• Title: Mold for a Male Head
• Date: 1–300 CE
• Culture: Italy, Roman
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: terracotta
• Dimensions: Overall: 9.9 x 6.4 x 4.8 cm (3 7/8 x 2 1/2 x 1 7/8 in.)
• Collection: GR - Roman
• Department: Greek and Roman Art
• Accession number: 1920.172

A detail from the museum

Because this is a mold, its facial features would be reversed in the final product.

Collection credit

Gift of Mrs. John Huntington

Further reading listed by the museum

• "Accessions." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 7, no. 7 (1920): 109-10.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.