- Museum number
- 1910,0620.1
- Description
-
Head of a large terracotta statue of a bearded man, probably a worshipper, in 'Neo-Cypriote Style'; mould-made face with modelled details, other parts of the head are hand-made; the face is enveloped by the beard and the remains of the headwear, but is broadly oval in shape; large oval eyes with ridged sockets (further defined by an incised groove around the edge); the large eye-balls are shown in black paint; the eyebrows are feathered and terminate in a point on the outer side; large nose, below which is a small rectangular moustache indicated with vertical incisions with black paint; below this the lips are rounded and full. His beard is a long rectangle divided into colums with vertical incistions, with incised panels; the panels are filled with oblique incised lines forming a zig-zag effect overall. the sideburns are also prominent and extend to the top of the face.
The headgear is now missing, but appears to have consisted of two parts wrapped around the head, probably a complex and/or a turban-like headress; the hair falls to shoulder level in a mass at the back; like the beard it is also painted black; the hair is swept behind the prominent ears.
The head is broken away from the body at shoulder level..
- Production date
- 650BC-600BC
- Dimensions
-
Height: 36 centimetres
- Curator's comments
- This head is in true Cypriot style with an Assyrian type beard, wide open eyes, a severe expression and prominent nose. A number of other male heads have Assyrian style beards like this one - hardly surprising as Cyprus was under Assyrian control from about 707-612 BC. The tallest of these large-scale terracotta statues discovered so far measures 260 cm in height and comes from the same site as this head: the Sanctuary of Apollo-Reshef at Phrangissa, near ancient Tamassos on the island of Cyprus.
The first large-scale statues of terracotta in Cypriot style are recorded from the island of Samos in the middle of the seventh century BC. They were first produced in Cyprus in the later seventh century BC. The statues continued to be made into the sixth century, though production had ceased by about 550 BC when sculpture in stone became more popular. The city of Salamis may have led the way in the creation and diffusion of this terracotta art to other parts of the island, but finds from the site at Tamassos are impressive.
All Cypriot large-scale terracotta statues were assembled from several separate pieces made by different techniques. Bodies were thrown on a potter's wheel; those of larger figures were made in two parts and assembled after firing. Legs were hollow and either handmade or made of clay coils; sometimes legs were wheel-made. Arms were either handmade and solid or wheel-made and hollow. Heads were normally hollow and turned on a wheel or made of coils; the faces were moulded. Accessories such as jewellery and beards were added and facial features formed. The figure was painted as required before being fired.
Bibliography:
Tatton-Brown V. 1997, Ancient Cyprus (2nd ed.) (London: The British Museum Press)
Hermary A. 1991, 'Les débuts de la grande plastique chypriote en terre cuite', in eds F. Vandenabeele and R. Laffineur, Cypriote terracottas. Proceedings of the First International Conference of Cypriote Studies, Brussels-Liège-Amsterdam, 29 May-1 June, 1989 (Brussels-Liège: A.G. Leventis Foundation, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Universite de Liège, 1991), 139-47.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
Exhibited:
2014 - 2015 15 Sept - 4 January, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, From Assyria to Iberia
2018-2019, 8 Nov 2018-24 Feb 2019, London, British Museum, I am Ashurbanipal: king of the world, king of Assyria
- Acquisition date
- 1886 (group)
- Acquisition notes
- The registration group GR 1910,6-20.1-23 was originally deposited on loan at the BM in 1886, part of the collection of antiquities loaned by Warren to the Cyprus Court of the Colonial and Indian Exhibition in London the same year (see Lang 1886, 36-8). Following his death in Canada in 1910, his executors sold the deposited material to the Trustees for £15 (see GR Trustees Reports, 3 May, 1910; information also in the GR Register for this group). A terracotta figurine, registered as 1910,6-20.22, was returned to the Cyprus Museum a few years later as it had been mistakenly sent to the British Museum with Warren's material. Not everything in the group purchased in 1910 was registered by the British Museum: the duplicate items from Tamassos donated to museum/college collections in the United Kingdom (in Aberystwyth, Dublin, Mullingar, Co. Westmeath and possibly other places) also appear to have come from the original group of items loaned by Warren.
Bibliography:
Lang R.H. 1886, Colonial and Indian Exhibition 1886. Handbook to Cyprus (with map of island) and catalogue of the exhibits (London).
- Department
- Greek and Roman
- Registration number
- 1910,0620.1