https://youtu.be/H-3_EKziygU
Greek enthroned goddess, Thebes, c.540-520 BC
Terracotta
Height: 22.5cm
10996 EL
Charles Ede, London
Further images
Extremely fine polychrome statuette of a seated goddess. Her peplos is fastened at each shoulder by a circular pin with spiral decoration, between which hangs a chain. The lower half...
Extremely fine polychrome statuette of a seated goddess. Her peplos is fastened at each shoulder by a circular pin with spiral decoration, between which hangs a chain. The lower half of the peplos has a chequerboard pattern, in the centre is a large four-petalled rosette. She wears a necklace and high polos decorated with a wreath. Her hands rest on her knees as she is leaning backwards, her body supported by two bifurcating cylindrical legs. The decoration is painted onto a white ground and consists of red with touches of yellow. The head and polos are moulded but the body and rear supports are hand-made, the details attached separately, the clay’s surface covered with faint fingermarks made by the sculptor. The body repaired from two pieces, some light touching in of the paint, the supports reattached and possibly not ancient.
Provenance
W.J. Ready, 55 Rathbone Place, London, UKLieut-General Pitt Rivers (1827-1900), Dorset, UK; acquired from the above 26th November 1891
Hans (1898-1976) and Pat Schleger, London, UK; acquired Sotheby’s, London, UK, 29th November 1965
Gordian Weber, Cologne, Germany; acquired 2007
Private collection, Germany
Exhibitions
Pitt Rivers Museum, Farnham, Dorset, UK, placed on display 30th September 1892Literature
Compare an almost identical example from Thebes in Friedrich Wilhelm Hamdorf, Hauch des Prometheus, Meisterwerke in Ton (Munich, 1996), p.67, no.81R.A. Higgins, Catalogue of the Terracottas in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, British Museum, Vol.1 (London, 1954), pl.84 & p173, no.647
Publications
Catalogue of objects collected by General Pitt Rivers from 1891-1896, Vol.3, p.764. The annotation in the catalogues states ‘Archaic Attic Votive figure, representing Aphrodite. VI Century BC from Athens. In glass shade. Height of figurine 9 ¼ inches. The ornamentation is in dark red.’Sotheby’s, London, UK, Catalogue of Highly Important Egyptian, Western Asiatic, Greek and Roman Antiquities, 29th November 1965, lot 105
Christie’s, London, UK, Antiquities, 25th April 2007, lot 201
Gordian Weber Kunsthandel, Antiken 12 (Cologne, 2008), pp.12-15
