Magna Graecia, South Italic Colonies, Apulia, Canosan, Hellenistic Period, ca. mid-4th to early 2nd century BCE. A gorgeous, mold-formed pottery statue of a standing woman dressed in flowing garments and embellished with traces of pink, white, and blue powder pigment. The elegant female stands with her left leg forward and a bent right leg and grasps a discoid object adorned with a front-facing flower in her left hand. Her elongated neck projects upwards from between her sloped shoulders and presents a feminine visage replete with almond-shaped eyes, puffy cheeks, petite earrings, and a centrally parted coiffure. Size: 3" W x 8.875" H (7.6 cm x 22.5 cm)

Female figures like this one played an interesting role in Canosan funerary practices as they were placed into Canosan tombs as replacements for large red-figure krater amphorae; first, however, mourners had to carry these figures in funerary processions and keep them present while carrying out rituals at and inside the tomb. Virtually all of the statues known from Canosan tombs depict women. However, scholars believe that they represented goddesses or mourners rather than the gender of the deceased individual; young women played a major role as mourners in this society. The Canosans, like other members of Classical society, believed that the spirits of the dead remained at the tomb and watched over the living. Canosan tombs were frequently re-opened to entomb deceased members of the same familial lineage, and this suggests that these statues were perhaps reused to maintain the spiritual connection between the living and the dead.

Provenance: East Coast collection, New York Gallery, New York City, New York, USA, acquired before 2010; ex-Arte Primitivo Gallery, New York, New York, USA

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#157499

Repaired from a few large pieces, with resurfacing and light overpainting along break lines. Nicks to head, body, and base, with softening to some finer details particularly on face, and minor fading to original pigment. Nice remains of original pigment across obverse.