figurine;
votive figure
- Museum number
- 1900,0903.16
- Description
-
Terracotta votive female figurine holding a dish of cakes; hand-made body, lower part cylindrical with splaying ends, with applied details worked with a incising tool; traces of red, green and black paint; the left hand is raised in the air in a devotional gesture; the right bears an oval dish with cakes, made from small pellets of clay, now damaged; large nose, slight lip and chin, very large painted eyes; she wears a long robe splaying outwards at the feet; over the left shoulder is a long mantle with a long red band which falls to below the waist; around the head is a large turban or head-dress, behind which falls what appears to be a mass of spreading hair, or else very large ear-caps, with details indicated by parallel incisions; from her neck hang two elaborate necklaces, one supporting a large circular pendant with a central knob, the other extending to the navel behind the mantle; pink-buff clay with traces of red and black paint on the lower part of the body.
- Production date
- 600BC-550BC
- Dimensions
-
Height: 20.50 centimetres
- Curator's comments
- See V. Karageorghis, The coroplastic art of ancient Cyprus V. The Cypro-Archaic period small female figurines. A. Handmade/wheelmade figurines, A.G. Leventis Foundation 1998, pp. 35-45 for a full discussion of the 'Lapithos workshop'. The cave in which the figurines were discovered may have been a sanctuary connected with a goddess connected with childbirth, though the varied attitudes of the votaries can be found in other shrines throughout the island in this period.
- Location
- On display (G72/dc3)
- Acquisition date
- 1900
- Department
- Greek and Roman
- Registration number
- 1900,0903.16
