Female Protome, Inv. T I-6
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Female Protome, Inv. T I-6. Front of the head made from a mould; back unfinished and smoothed. Provenance: Unknown. Condition: Front part of the bust missing. Break on the back below the neck with a sharp-edged projection. Minor damage to the ears and hair. Dimensions: H. 7.3 cm; W. 4.9 cm; D. 2.5 cm. Bibliography: Unpublished.
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Description:
The rectangular head tapers trapezoidally towards the bottom. Above the forehead, the hair forms a pediment-like arrangement, slightly offset to the right, framing the forehead in short arches. Below the temples, the hair falls onto the shoulders in widening plastic tiers and merges into painted vertical strands.[1]
The smooth, angular cheeks terminate in a massive chin, separated from the closed mouth by a horizontal depression. The full lips are rendered as a straight line. A prominent nose projects between large, slightly narrowed eyes and forms a continuous line with the forehead. The eyes lie beneath pronounced brow ridges and are framed by bulging eyelids. The lower lid is indicated almost horizontally, while the upper lid forms a strongly curved arch. The iris is marked by a circular depression within the eyeball, and the pupil by a dark dot.
Commentary:
Protome T I-6 probably belonged to a pyxis as a figural handle, specifically to a round pyxis, as indicated by the convex curvature of the wall.[2] As demonstrated by the sharp edge on the back of the Giessen specimen[3] and by completely preserved examples of female-headed pyxides,[4] such busts were attached to the vessel’s shoulder so that the back of the head supported the rim of the pyxis. On the reverse, the middle section of the figures is usually only cursorily modelled rather than fully worked out, though it is occasionally painted.
This vessel type was produced in Corinthian workshops at the end of the seventh and beginning of the sixth century BC and remained part of the formal repertoire of Archaic pottery until the Late Corinthian period.[5] Like other Corinthian pottery, head pyxides spread beyond the Greek mainland to Eastern Greece, the Italian peninsula, Etruria, and Sicily.[6]
Well-preserved head pyxides are known from Selinunte; further examples are preserved, for instance, in New York, San Simeon, and Okayama.[7] Head T I-6 closely resembles an example in Copenhagen as well as pyxis heads in New York and the Louvre.[8] Like these examples, it reflects the shoulder-length hairstyles of the Daedalic period, characterised by hair arranged in flat stepped tiers.
Stylistic features such as the additive relationship between frontal and profile views, the massive chin, and the spherical eyeballs framed by the flat lower eyelid and the high arch of the upper eyelid recall large-scale sculpture such as the New York Kouros.[9] In the case of terracotta heads made from moulds, however, it must be borne in mind that such types may already have existed in the Middle Corinthian period, that is, in the first quarter of the sixth century BC, while their later use as pyxis handles can only be dated to the Late Corinthian period on the basis of vase painting and the letter forms of the inscriptions.[10]
Date: Mid-sixth century BC, Corinth.
[1] In contrast, plastically indicated vertical strands of hair: K. Wallenstein, Korinthische Plastik des 7. und 6. Jahrhunderts vor Christus (Bonn 1971) 67-68 pl. 12, 1.
[2] Female head pyxids are provided with two or three handles: Chr. Dehl-von Kaenel, Die archaische Keramik aus dem Malophoros-Heiligtum in Selinunt (Berlin 1995) 169 f. 188-191 pl. 32 ff.
[3] Wallenstein ibid. 114 pl. 8, 5.
[4] St. Böhm, Korinthische Figurenvasen. Düfte, Gaben und Symbole (Regensburg 2014) 22 f. 121-123. 130 f. 133. 136. 145; Dehl-von Kaenel ibid. 188-191 pl. 32 f.; "Protome pyxis", E. Simon, The Kurashiki Ninagawa Museum Okayama (Mainz 1982) 34-36 fig. 15; "Female Protome, pyxis handle", F. Johansen, Greece in the Archaic Period (Copenhagen 1994) 155 f.; „Head-Pyxis“, D. A. Amyx, Corinthian Vase-Painting of the Archaic Period (Berkeley – Los Angeles – London 1988) 224 pl. 93. 451-453; "Pyxides with Handles in the Form of Female Heads or Busts", H. Payne, Necrocorinthia (Oxford 1931) 306 f. pl. 47 f.; V. Karageorghis, Ancient Art from Cyprus.The Cesnola Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York 2000) 102 fig. 162.
[5] Amyx ibid. 452.
[6] Dehl-von Kaenel ibid. 188-191 no. 1203. 1204 1206 pl. 32 f. On the foundation dates of Greek colonies and their significance for the chronology of Corinthian pottery: B. Bäbler, Archäologie und Chronologie (Darmstadt 2004) 72-82; J. Boardman, Kolonien und Handel der Griechen (München 1982) 195-247.
[7] Dehl- von Kaenel ibid. 188 f. no. 1203 pl. 33; Karageorghis ibid. 102 fig. 162; Amyx ibid. 224 pl. 93 1 B; Simon ibid. 34 f. fig. 15.
[8] Johansen ibid. 156 fig. 117; Karageorghis ibid. 102 fig. 162; F. Croissant, Tradition et innovation dans les ateliers corinthiens archaïques: Matériaux pour l'histoire d'un style, BCH 112, 1988, 112 f. fig. 39. 42.
[9] W. Martini, Die archaische Plastik der Griechen (Darmstadt 1990) 4 f. fig. 1. and p. 175.
[10] Böhm ibid. 131 note. 339; Dehl-von Känel ibid. 189 note. 416; F. Lorber, Inschriften auf korinthischen Vasen (Berlin 1979) 92 f. no. 153 fig. 60; Karageorghis ibid. 102 fig. 162.