Boeotian Figurine: Female Figurine

Inv. No.: 88.011
Provenance: Boeotia
Date: 5th century BC
Height: 125mm
Diameter: 31mm
 
Gift of an anonymous donor.

Figurines of standing women were common in mid-fifth century Boeotia and probably derive from Attic examples. This figure is shown dressed in the usual peplos; her hands hang by her sides, she bears her weight on her right leg and her left knee is slightly bent. Her hair is gathered back from her face and she wears a polos. The figure is set on a low rectangular base that is hollow underneath. The back is not moulded. The clay is brown and rather coarse. The head has been broken in two pieces and re-assembled and re-attached to the body. Traces of white remain.

Function:
Used for votive or funerary purposes.

Manufacture:
A mould-made figurine.

Bibliography:
Higgins, R. A., Greek Terracottas, London, Methuen, 1967, 57-58, 76-80.

Comparanda:
Chesterman, J., Classical Terracotta Figures, London, Ward Lock, 1974, Fig. 34.

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), Plates 111, 816 and 112, 813-814; see also Volume 1: Text (1969), 217-218.

Higgins, R. A., Greek Terracottas, London, Methuen, 1967, Plate 33, C.

Vafopoulou-Richardson, C. E., Greek Terracottas, Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, 1981, 16a (Standing woman from Boetia, mid-fifth century BC).