Ugly Classics

Images of some hideous or grotesque images from the classical world. Above, terracotta lamp filler depicting a satyr, from south Italy, 4th century BC, now in the MFA, Boston.

Hellenistic grotesque, now in the British Museum.

Miniature statue of Silenus.

Medusa, 8th century BC.

Cameo, 1st or 2nd century AD.

This is in the Met, but they really have no idea what it is. Grotesque? Caricature of a philosopher? Hellenistic? Roman?

Two images of a terracotta Hellenistic grotesque.

Theater mask, now in the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Another Silenus, 1st to 2nd century AD.

Hellenistic dancer.

Hellenistic grotesque, now in the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest.

Stone relief of Medusa, Roman, 1st century AD.

And another Hellenistic work, this one in Munich.