A GREEK TERRACOTTA BUST OF A GODDESS

CLASSICAL PERIOD, MAGNA GRAECIA, CIRCA EARLY 4TH CENTURY B.C.

Details

A GREEK TERRACOTTA BUST OF A GODDESS
CLASSICAL PERIOD, MAGNA GRAECIA, CIRCA EARLY 4TH CENTURY B.C.
With a hollow bell-shaped body, the oval face with thickly-lidded eyes, fleshy lips and a dimpled chin, the ears pierced, her curly hair pulled back from her forehead and surmounted by a high conical polos, a fillet tied at the front, some dark red pigment preserved throughout the hair, an "A" inscribed in Greek on the reverse of the polos
18 7/16 in. (46.8 cm.) high

Provenance

with Summa Galleries, Beverly Hills, 1981.
Private Collection, Los Angeles.

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Molly Morse Limmer

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Lot Essay

For a closely related example found in Locri see no. 1230 in Higgins, Catalogue of the Terracottas in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, British Museum. For a similar bust from Morgantina, see p. 432, cat. 382,I in Carratelli, ed., The Western Greeks. Boncasa informs (in Carratelli, op. cit., pp. 432ff.) that large terracotta busts of this type were popular from the Archaic Period through the 3rd century B.C. and have been found in high concentrations throughout Sicily.

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