MA student Grace Burns wins 2025 Günther Stamm Prize

MA student Grace Burns won the 2025 Günther Stamm Prize for her paper “Masking the Bacchic Floor: Materiality and Theatrically in the Cummer Mask Mosaic” at Florida State University. This award, honoring a founding professor of Art History at FSU, goes to one student every year selected by the faculty based on originality and presentation.

Paper Abstract

A vividly polychrome mosaic acquired by the Cummer Museum in 1990 remains little studied despite presenting a striking depiction of a theater mask. Though identified as Silenus, the mask displays close visual similarities to the “lead slave” character popularized in Greek New Comedy of the 4th century BCE and later adapted by Roman playwrights like Plautus in the 2nd century BCE. While bacchic-themed masks are widespread in Roman mosaics, the identity, context, and function of this unprovenanced mosaic emblema remain unclear. Very close parallels in composition and technique with other mosaics, found in and around Rome and Ampurias (Hispania Tarraconensis), suggest the Cummer mosaic was originally displayed in an elite Roman villa, likely as part of a larger “carpet” mosaic in a cubiculum or banqueting space. The Cummer mosaic recontextualized as such sheds new light on the theatrical and literary culture of Roman dining.

Her paper will be included in the next volume of Athanor, the graduate-student journal published by the department each fall. Burns would like to extend her gratitude to the Cummer Museum in Jacksonville for their assistance and permission regarding her research, and professor Dr. Abbe for his guidance throughout her project.