Female figure. Greek culture. Hellenistic period, IV-II BC.
Terracotta.
Good state of preservation.
Provenance: Private collection, Mrs. K., Paris.
Measurements: 26 cm high.
Hellenistic sculpture was the perfecting of the representation of human anatomy and emotional expressiveness, both aspects of which can be seen in the terracotta figure in question. On the one hand, it is evident here in the work of the drapery, which in turn adheres to the body in superimposed layers and models it with a technique similar to that of wet cloths, so that the veil covers as well as reveals. The gestures are also more intense than in the classical period. On the back, the figure has an urn-like hollow. Hellenistic sculpture represents the final period in the evolution of Greek sculpture, and developed in the period between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the conquest of Egypt by the Romans in 30-31 BC. It is an eclectic, secular and historicist language, which takes as its starting point the legacy of classical sculpture from the previous period, to which new oriental influences were added. It entailed a fundamental change in aesthetics, moving away from the ideal to represent the individual, from the generic to the specific. Thus, the previous ethical and pedagogical ideal was abandoned in favour of a new emphasis on everyday human aspects, in an art that would have the aesthetic as its main purpose, although occasionally it would also be propagandistic. This new interest in man and his inner life, his emotions, problems and yearnings, resulted in a realistic style that tended to emphasise the dramatic, the prosaic and movement. Hellenism also provided the first individualised and plausible portraits in Western art. The subject matter was also broadened to include depictions of old age and childhood, minor non-Olympian deities and secondary figures from mythology, as well as popular figures in their everyday work.