Etrusco-italic votive head
€1,600
available
Object number
AR3261A
| Object: |
Male votive head
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| Material: |
Red clay
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| Date: |
About 4th - 3rd century B.C. Etruscan |
| Description: |
Male head, of a man with a cloak draped over the back of his head. Finely crafted face with large, smooth, curved cheeks and a round, slightly protruding chin with a small central indentation. Full lips. The front is made from a matrix, partially reworked with a modeling stick. The back is rounded and modeled. Hollow, open at the bottom. These Etruscan-Italian votive heads were primarily found in central Italy, but were also found in southern Italy, Sicily, and the Po Valley. They were intended as votive offerings to deities from whom protection and healing from illnesses were sought. Unlike votive offerings of specific body parts in terracotta, such heads probably did not refer to specific illnesses. Rather, they were intended to represent the dedicator as a pars pro toto. |
| Size: |
Height 20.3cm without and 27.2cm with base. Width 15.4cm.
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| Condition: |
Fragment of a clay head, with the face and the non-sculptured back completely preserved. The right side, the upper head, and part of the neck are missing. Overall, an object creating a very fine impression, despite, or perhaps because of, the missing parts. The mold impression has sharp contours. Mounted on a modern composite base by means of a firmly embedded pin.
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| References: |
See Die Welt der Etrusker, Archäologische Denkmäler aus Museen der sozialistischen Länder (Berlin 1988) p. 291, Kat. D 3.23. See Kataloge der Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen Kassel, Nr. 8 Antike Terrakotten (1977), Nr. 68 for a later head from the time of Augustus. |
| Provenance: |
Acquired 2021 in a German auction house. Ex German private collection Helge Deikner (federal state of Nordrhein-Westfalen), acquired before 1980.
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| Authenticity: |
We unconditionally guarantee the authenticity of every artefact, all items are subject to our lifetime return policy on authenticity.
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