Imagines

Imagines

Imagines (meaning literally, the image or face) were Roman funerary masks, thought to have been made of wax, that were hung after the person's death, in the atrium of their ancestral home providing they had held curule office in the Roman state. This meant that they had to have been a censor, consul, praetor or curule aedile (later, also plebeian aedile).

The use of these masks was mostly ornamental, as they were placed in the most public room of the house, with small inscriptions beneath them ("tituli") for most of the time. Here they would be viewed by all the clientia of the pater familias as the Roman house, especially the atrium and the tablinum was a semi-public place.

The masks also played a role in Roman funeral processions when they would be worn by hired actors and would parade before the dead man.

There has been much discussion of the material make up of the masks. The most likely solution is that they were made of wax, possibly moulded to the faces of the dead themselves, or to busts of them, since if you entered office you would have been granted this at public expense.


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  • Imagĭnes — (lat., Mehrzahl von Imago, »Bild«), bei den Römern Porträtmasken aus Wachs, mit denen die Leichen ausgestellt wurden. Sie wurden in den beiden Seitenteilen des Atriums (alae) in kleinen Schränken aufbewahrt und durch Linien zu einem… …   Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon

  • imágines — (ant.) f. pl. Imágenes …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • imagines — imàgines m mn DEFINICIJA pov. voštane kultne maske pokojnika koje su stajale u trijemu starorimske kuće (nošene na sprovodima), usp. imago (1) ETIMOLOGIJA vidi imago …   Hrvatski jezični portal

  • IMAGINES — I. IMAGINES in Gentilium religione multi usûs, qui tamen non apud omnes eorum semper viguit. Nam fuêre, qui urcumque Numina colentes varia, aut Solem saltem sub variis nominibus, neque atas, neque statuas Imag insque ullas eorum hab uêre, nec… …   Hofmann J. Lexicon universale

  • Imagines — Mit Imago (eine lateinische, feminine Bezeichnung, die wörtlich übersetzt „das Bild“ bedeutet, im Plural Imagines) werden bei den Insekten die erwachsenen, das heißt geschlechtsreifen Alttiere bezeichnet. Gelegentlich findet sich auch die… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • imagines — pl. of IMAGO. * * * imagines pl. of imago …   Useful english dictionary

  • Imagines (work by Philostratus) — Imagines is a work in Ancient Greek now generally attributed to Philostratus III. It ostensibly describes 64 works of art seen by Philostratus in Naples. The entire work is framed in terms of explaining art, its symbols and meaning, to a young… …   Wikipedia

  • Imagines maiorum —   [lateinisch], antike römische Ahnenbilder der großen Adelsfamilien republikanischer Zeit. Man gewann die farbigen Wachsmasken mithilfe von Gipsabdrücken der Verstorbenen; sie wurden im Atrium aufbewahrt und bei Leichenzügen und verschiedenen… …   Universal-Lexikon

  • Imagines — восковые изображения предков или восковые маски, висевшие в атрии знатных римлян и соединенные в виде родословного древа (Плиний XXXV, 2); маски были раскрашены и изображали тех из предков, которые исправляли курульные должности, впоследствии и… …   Энциклопедический словарь Ф.А. Брокгауза и И.А. Ефрона

  • Imagines — …   Википедия

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