Timon of Athens

Timon is one of Shakespeare’s ‘problem plays’ – works that contain elements of comedy and tragedy but in such a way that the author’s intent is unclear. It is also one of the handful of plays in the Shakespeare canon that scholars agree was probably written in collaboration with another writer, likely fellow playwright Thomas Middleton. Timon is a wealthy Athenian who gives away all of his money and possessions to lazy, undeserving friends. Upon realizing this, he renounces society, moves into the wilderness, then finds buried treasure with which he decides to finance an attack on Athens in retaliation for its unkind usury of him (also he wants a bunch of whores to spread venereal disease among the survivors). Then Timon dies after realizing that his servant, Flavius, was his only true friend. The lovely little bust on the obverse easily connotes some sort classical setting without getting into anything too specific. And the expression of its subject suggests to me justified frustration bordering on unhinged. I found this little bit of statuary at a dollhouse supply shop – it purports to show Michelangelo, but is generic enough to work for any number of other characters. I have to say that going the dollhouse supply shop introduced me to a new world of dedicated obsessive madness that I had no idea existed – I love it when that happens.