South Italian Sculpture: Relief Fragment with Draped Woman

Inv. No.: 87.205
Provenance: Taras, South Italy
Date: late 4th-early 3rd century BC
Length: 160mm
 
Cottier-Angeli gift.

The bottom and left edge of a plaster copy of a limestone frieze or metope. A plain raised edge frames the scene on the left and at the base. All that is visible in this fragment is the frontal body of a maenad wearing elaborate drapery, carved in relief. The drapery is belted at the waist with an overfall and deep folds. The maenad steps to the right with her left leg bent forward, her left foot visible beneath the drapery, and her right leg stretched behind. She is probably holding a thyrsus or a thyrsus-like spear in her right hand. Such fleeing figures are frequently found in Tarentine limestone reliefs which were used to decorate small funerary buildings. The relief would originally have been painted.

Function:
A fragment of a limestone relief carving used to decorate a sepulchral building.

Manufacture:
The original was carved from limestone.

Bibliography:
Bernarbò Brera, L., "I Rilievi Tarantini in Pietra Tenera", Rivista dellstituto Nazionale drcheologia e Storia dellrte, N.S. 1 (1952), 5-241.

Carter, J. C., "The Sculpture of Taras", Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, NS 65, Part 7 (1975), 7-38.

Rolley, C., "Sculpture in Magna Graecia", The Western Greeks, ed. G. P. Carratelli, exhibition catalogue, Palazzo Grassi, Venice, 1996, 397-398.

Comparanda:
Bernarbò Brera, L., "I Rilievi Tarantini in Pietra Tenera", Rivista dellstituto Nazionale drcheologia e Storia dellrte, N.S. 1 (1952), Figs. 33, 34, 112-115.

Carter, J. C., "The Sculpture of Taras", Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, NS 65, Part 7 (1975), Plate 60c - Group S, 310-280 BC (very similar figure).

Langlotz, E., The Art of Magna Graecia: Greek Art in Southern Italy and Sicily, London, Thames and Hudson, 1965, Plates

Rolley, C., "Sculpture in Magna Graecia", The Western Greeks, ed. G. P. Carratelli, exhibition catalogue, Palazzo Grassi, Venice, 1996, 398 (limestone relief metope, 2nd century BC).