South Italian Figurine: Head
Inv. No.: 87.224
Provenance: South Italy (probably Sicily)
Date: first half of 5th century BC
Height: 60mm
Width: 43mm
The head of a female figurine made from light orange-buff clay with traces of white remaining. There are three strands of wavy hair on each side of a central part. The woman wears a stephane on the top of her head, perhaps with a himation over it. The figure is modelled at the front and is flat and roughly finished at the back.
Function:
A fragment of a figurine, used for votive or funerary purposes.
Manufacture:
A mould-made piece.
Bibliography:
Bell, M., III, Morgantina Studies, Volume 1: The Terracottas, Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton University Press, 1981, 9-21.
Comparanda:
Bell, M., III, Morgantina Studies, Volume 1: The Terracottas, Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton University Press, 1981, Plate 7. 26 (late sixth century head).
Carratelli, G. P. (ed.), The Western Greeks, exhibition catalogue, Palazzo Grassi, Venice, 1996, Catalogue no. 173 (seated female figurine from South Italy; first half of 5th century BC).
Higgins, R. A., Catalogue of the Terracottas in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, British Museum, second edition, London, British Museum, 1970, I (Plates), Plate 41, 237 (mid-fifth century female protome from Rhodes).
Richter, G. M. A., The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Handbook of the Greek Collection, Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1953, Plate 51, f and h (late Archaic seated goddesses).