Western Greece, Archaic period, ca. 600 to 500 BCE. A mold-made terracotta bust of an elegant female figure with a sensitively rendered countenance featuring deepset eyes and a focused expression, depicted in a naturalistic manner and wearing a high headdress. Custom lucite stand. Size: 4.375" H (11.1 cm); 5.5" H (14 cm) on included custom stand.

By the seventh century BCE, Greek art began to evolve from its embrace of geometric patterning, which was favored between approximately 1050 and 700 BCE, to a desire to create more naturalistic representations of the human figure. Most famous are the freestanding sculptures of two main types, the male standing youth known as a kouros, and the draped standing female kore. The earliest examples demonstrate an Egyptian influence in both pose and proportions, but over time sculptors created even more lifelike representations. These were placed in sanctuaries as well as cemeteries and served as grave markers and dedications to the deities. Even smaller pieces like this one demonstrate these developing naturalistic leanings of Greek visual culture.

Provenance: private Swiss collection

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#124164

A section of a larger work with surface wear, a few nicks and repaired fissures, but a very nice example nonetheless.