Two-sided relief

myminifactory

This is a decorative marble relief from a peristyle garden of a Roman house or villa.  The masks of a young maenad and bearded silenus are carved on the one side in high relief. A shepherd's crook, known in antiquity as a pedum, and two cymbals rest between them. Dionysiac cult objects and theatrical masks are often depicted on similar marble ornaments found in Pompeii, where they were suspended between the columns of the peristyle or set on tall pillars around the garden. Other themes, however, are also represented; on the other side of this piece in low relief, ketos, or sea monster, rides atop the waves.