Woman with flower and coat
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Woman with flower and coat, Inv. T I-37 Front made from a mould; back unfinished and smoothed. Hollow. Firing hole in the underside of the plinth. Provenance: Acquired by Bruno Sauer from the Margaritis Collection. Condition: Reassembled from three fragments; complete. Light brown clay (10YR 6/4–6/5). White slip. Light blue paint preserved on the cloak on the left side of the figure. Red paint in the hair and on the feet, especially between the toes. Two horizontal red stripes on the front of the plinth. Yellow paint on the tiara. Dimensions: H. 24.1 cm; W. of plinth 5.6 cm; W. at arm level 6.9 cm; D. of plinth 6.8 cm; D. at knee level 4.6 cm. Bibliography: E. Neuffer, Griechische Terrakotten, Heimat im Bild. Beilage zum Gießener Anzeiger 17, 1930, 66–67 fig. 2; W. Zschietzschmann, Die Antikensammlungen der Universität, Gießener Hochschulblätter 5, 1957, 2 fig. 4. |
Description:
A female figure stands on an almost square plinth, leaning slightly to her left. The relaxed right leg is set somewhat forward with the knee bent. The slender feet, with carefully rendered toes, are clearly bare; there is no indication of sandal straps.
The woman wears a floor-length chiton of fine, thin fabric, falling in narrow vertical folds between the legs and along the sides of the body. Half-length sleeves extend to the elbows, and a broad overfold is visible on the right sleeve. A narrow mantle, arranged in dense folds, is drawn in a curved loop across the waist and around the bent left arm, descending from the left shoulder in vertical folds. The right arm is bent more sharply; the upturned fingers presumably once held a painted flower.
The hair is adorned with a delicate tiara and frames the forehead and temples in a thick, unparted roll. The elongated face is characterised by a heavy chin; the horizontally rendered lips form a broad mouth. The slightly protruding eyes are strongly arched above and almost horizontal below.
Commentary:
The statuette belongs to a type especially common in Attica, Boeotia, and Rhodes,[1] which spread widely throughout the Mediterranean.[2] The distinctive mantle arrangement is not confined to standing draped female figures; it also occasionally appears on seated female figures[3] and even on standing youths.[4]
Characteristic features of the Giessen example include the advanced right leg, the small diadem, and the hair drawn upward and left undivided above the forehead. A close parallel, reportedly from Rhodes, is preserved in Leipzig.[5] The pronounced inclination to one side also appears in a statuette from the necropolis of Kamiros,[6] likewise adorned with a narrow diadem; unlike the Giessen and Leipzig examples, however, the hair there is combed forward over the forehead and temples. A variant with the left leg advanced[7] differs more substantially in hairstyle and headdress.[8]
Attempts to attribute the statuettes to different regional workshops on the basis of stance — assigning figures with an advanced relaxed right leg to Rhodes and those with an advanced relaxed left leg to Boeotian workshops[9] — have proved inconclusive, since examples with an advanced relaxed right leg are also attested in Boeotia.[10] In Olynthus and Magna Graecia, the position of the legs appears to have been arbitrary.[11]
The light brown colour of the clay in T I-37 may point to Boeotia, though other workshops cannot be excluded.[12] In terms of stance, hairstyle, and headdress, however, the figure is particularly close to Rhodian examples.[13]
Stylistically, the statuette displays features characteristic of the Severe Style. A clear distinction is made between the weight-bearing and relaxed leg, although this does not affect the rigid posture of the upper body. The mass of hair extending down to the ears and the elongated head with its heavy lower face likewise suggest a date around the middle of the fifth century BC.
Date: Around 450 BC. Rhodian type?
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[1] Attica: R. A. Higgins, Cat. of the Terracottas in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities British Museum (London 1954) 83 f. no. 210-213 pl. 37; U. Sinn, Antike Terrakotten. Staatl. Kunstsamml. Kassel (Wilhelmshöhe 1977) 29 no. 27 pl. 8; B. Vierneisel-Schlörb, Kerameikos 15. Die figürlichen Terrakotten (München 1997) 17 f. no. 42. 43 pl. 11. Boeotia: U. Gehrig, Antiken aus Berliner Privatbesitz (Berlin 1975) 157; F. W. Hamdorf, Die figürlichenTerrakotten der Staatlichen Antikensammlungen München (Lindenberg im Allgäu 2014) 180 f. fig. D 80; S. Mollard-Besques, Cat. raisonné des Figurines et Reliefs en terre cuite grecs, étrusques et romains I (Paris 1954) 90 no. C 45 pl. 63; 91 no. C 46 pl. 64; B. Schmaltz, Terrakotten aus dem Kabirenheiligtum bei Theben (Berlin 1974) 175 no. 289 pl. 23; P. Leyenaar-Plaisier, Les Terres cuites grecques et romaines (Leiden 1979) 92 no. 185 pl. 31; J. Schneider-Lenyel, Griechische Terrakotten (München 1936) 19 fig. 25. Rhodes: Torso, Chr. Blinkenberg, Lindos I (Berlin 1931) 549 no. 2269 pl. 105; Higgins ibid. 83 f. no. 210-213 Taf. 37; id., Greek Terracottas (London 1967) 64 pl. 24 F; W. Hornbostel, Kunst der Antike (Mainz 1977) 136 f. fig. 108; Mollard-Besques ibid. 106 f. no. C 135 pl. 77; V. Poulsen, Der strenge Stil (Kopenhagen 1937) 82. 85 fig. 51; Winter 1, 1903, 59, 5; E. Paul, Antike Welt in Ton (Leipzig 1959) 29. 67 no. 39 pl. 16; N. Breitenstein, Cat. of Terracottas (Copenhagen 1941) 26 f. no. 251 Taf. 26.
[2] z. B. Thasos: G. Daux, Chronique des Fouilles 1963, BCH 88, 1964, 872 fig. 14; Olynthos: D. M. Robinson, Excavations at Olynthus VII (Baltimore 1933) 48 fig. 168, ibid. 169-173 pl. 20 f.; Sicily: M. Maas, Griechische Kunst aus Unteritalien und Sizilien (Karlsruhe 1987) 39 fig. 22; South Italy: Mollard-Besques ibid. 159 no. C 595 pl. 103; Vouni/Zypern: E. Gjerstad, SCE III (Stockholm 1937) 232, no. 49 pl. 79, 6; p. 234, no. 98 pl. 98, 7; p. 256, no. 485 pl. 98, 5.
[3] Hornbostel ibid. 142 no. 113.
[4] P. Leyenaar-Plaisier, Les Terres cuites grecques et romaines (Leiden 1979) 45 f. no. 75 pl. 15.
[5] Paul ibid. 29. 67 no. 39 Taf. 16; N. Breitenstein, Cat. of Terracottas (Copenhagen 1941) 26 f. no. 251 pl. 26.
[6] Higgins ibid. 83 no. 212 pl. 37.
[7] Gehrig ibid. 157; Higgins ibid. 216 f. no. 811 pl. 111 und no. 812 pl. 112.
[8] Hamdorf ibid. 180 fig. D 80; Leyenaar-Plaisier ibid. 92 no. 185 pl. 31; Mollard-Besques ibid. 91 C 46 pl. 64; Schneider-Lenyel ibid. 19 fig. 25; V. Verhoogen, Terres cuites gtecques aux Musées Royaux d'Art et d'Histoire (Bruxelle 1956) 24 f. fig. 14 b.
[9] Gehrig ibid. 157.
[10] Schmaltz 1974, 109, pl. 23, 289; Mollard-Besques ibid. 90 f. no. C 45 pl. 63.
[11] s. note. 2.
[12] Higgins describes the colour of the clay in Kamiros and Lindos as generally leathery brown, id. ibid. 61.
[13] Blinkenberg ibid. 549 no. 2269 pl. 105; Higgins ibid. 83 f. no. 210-213 pl. 37; id., Greek Terracottas (London 1967) 64 pl. 24 F; Hornbostel ibid. 136 f. fig. 108; Mollard-Besques ibid. 106 f. no. C 135 pl. 77; Poulsen ibid. 82. 85 fig. 51; Winter 1, 1903, 59, 5; Breitenstein ibid. 26 f. no. 251 pl. 26.