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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1933.132
Title
Female Votive Statuette
Classification
Sculpture
Work Type
sculpture, statuette
Date
late 5th-2nd century BCE
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Europe, Hispania
Period
Iron Age
Culture
Iberian
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/310802

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Bronze
Technique
Cast, lost-wax process
Dimensions
10.1 x 2.9 x 3.1 cm (4 x 1 1/8 x 1 1/4 in.)
Technical Details

Chemical Composition: XRF data from Tracer
Alloy: Bronze
Alloying Elements: copper, tin
Other Elements: lead, iron, nickel, silver, antimony

K. Eremin, January 2014

Technical Observations: The patina features brown accretions and exposed areas of bright green. There are many small areas of loss, all 1 mm deep, that expose underlying green corrosion products. Beneath the green is a surprisingly even surface, which has become a similar brown to the top patina.

The figure is a solid cast, probably from a model made by working directly in wax. Most of the shapes were made in the wax model, although several incised lines, such as those marking the fingers, have fine striations from cold working the metal cast.


Henry Lie (submitted 2011)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
National Archaeological Museum of Spain, (by 1933), by exchange; to the Fogg Art Museum.

Excavated at the sanctuary site of Collado de los Jardines, Jaén, in the early 1900s.

Note: In exchange for a Sepulchral slab from the Cemetery at Sahagun, Leon, Spain.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of The Republic of Spain through the Museo Arqueologico Nacional and Professor A. Kingsley Porter
Accession Year
1933
Object Number
1933.132
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Descriptions

Published Catalogue Text: Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes at the Harvard Art Museums
This female orant wears a low, curved, and uncovered headdress that seems to be made of three plain bands (1). The back of the headdress is featureless and slightly concave. Her brow is quite prominent below the front of the headdress. Her facial features are molded and very large, particularly the eyes and jutting nose. Her chin is small and curved. There is a prominence on each side of the head that may indicate ears or part of the decorations on the headdress. She wears a long form-fitting dress with short sleeves. Either the dress has a decorative collar, or the statuette wears a necklace. The back of the dress has a crisscross decoration that might be a rendering of the same circular, looped band worn by 1933.134. Bracelets or cuffs are modeled above the elbows and indicated by incision at the wrists. The dress narrows somewhat at the waist, flaring out slightly down to the ankles and leaving the feet uncovered. A slight train covers her heels. Her arms are extremely long and thin; they are completely separate from the upper body, bending at the elbows with both hands held palm downward on her chest. Separate fingers are slightly indicated with incision. Her feet are large and block-like, with a groove on the top and bottom to indicate their separation.

Thousands of small, anthropomorphic copper alloy statuettes and anatomical votives have been recovered from remote sanctuary sites in south-central Spain, particularly Collado de los Jardines and Castellar de Santisteban, but it is not certain to which god or gods they were dedicated (2). Many of the statuettes depict individuals, some of whom are represented in poses of prayer or offering (3). Some are very abstract and schematically rendered, while others wear identifiable contemporary clothing (4). In spite of the similarity of the votives, there is nothing to indicate that the intention behind each offering was the same. This example is most likely from the cave sanctuary of Collado de los Jardines near Santa Elena, Jaén. It was given to Harvard in 1933 by the Republic of Spain in exchange for the cover of the eleventh-century sarcophagus of Alfonso Ansúrez from Sahagún, León, which was then in the collection of the Fogg Art Museum (5).

NOTES:

1. Compare L. Prados Torreira, Exvotos ibericos de bronce del Museo Arqueologico Nacional (Madrid, 1992) 220, nos. 579-80, particularly the position of the elbows. Compare the figure’s stance and overall form to R. Lantier, Bronzes votifs ibériques (Paris, 1935) no. 226, pl. 18.

2. See F. Álvarez-Ossorio, Bronces ibéricos o hispánicos del Museo Arqueológico Nacional (Madrid, 1935) 20-27; id., Catálogo de los exvotos de bronce ibéricos (Madrid, 1941); L. Prados Torreira, “Los exvotos anatomicos del santuario iberico de Collado de los Jardines (Sta. Elena, Jaén),” Trabajos de prehistoria 48 (1991): 313-32; ead. 1992 (supra 1); ead., “Los santuarios ibéricos: Apuntes para el desarrollo de una arqueología del culto,” Trabajos de prehistoria 51.1 (1994): 127-40; and G. Nicolini et al., El santuario ibérico de Castellar, Jaén: Intervenciones arqueológicas 1966-1991 (Seville, 2004) 160-64.

3. For discussions of the statuettes’ poses and gestures, see G. Nicolini, “Gestes et attitudes cultuels des figurines de bronze ibériques,” Mélanges de la Casa de Velázquez 4 (1968): 27-50; and C. Rueda Galán, “La mujer sacralizada: La presencia de las mujeres en los santuarios (lectura desde los exvotos de bronce iberos),” Complutum 18 (2007): 227-35.

4. See, for example, 1933.134.

5. See “Collections and Critiques,” The Harvard Crimson, Dec. 12, 1935; and Á. Franco, “Arte medieval leonés fuera de España,” in La dispersión de objetos de arte fuera de España en los siglos XIX y XX, eds. F. Pérez Mulet and I. Socias Batet (Barcelona, 2011) 93-132, esp. 113-16.

Lisa M. Anderson

Publication History

  • "Collections and Critiques", The Harvard Crimson, Dec. 12, 1935
  • Francisco Alvarez-Ossorio, Catalogo de los exvotos de bronce, ibericos, Museo Arqueologico Nacional (Madrid, 1941), cat. no. 128, inv. no. 29185, pl. 20.
  • Lourdes Prados Torreira, "La coleccion de bronces ibericos del Peabody Museum de Harvard", Bronces y Religion Romana: Actas del XI Congreso Internacional de Bronces Antiguos, Madrid, Mayo-Junio 1990, ed. J. Arce and F. Burkhalter, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (Madrid, 1993), 361-67, p. 362, no. 2, fig. 1.
  • Robert H. Tykot, Lourdes Prados Torreira, and Miriam S. Balmuth, "Iberian bronze figurines: technological and stylistic analysis", From the Parts to the Whole: Acta of the 13th International Bronze Congress, ed. Carol C. Mattusch, Amy Brauer, and Sandra E. Knudsen, Journal of Roman Archaeology (Portsmouth, RI, 2000), vol. 2, p. 27-30, no. 129, fig. 1.
  • Ángela Franco, "Arte medieval leonés fuera de España", La dispersión de objetos de arte fuera de España en los siglos XIX y XX, ed. Fernando Pérez Mulet and Immaculada Socias Batet, Edicions Universitat Barcelona (Barcelona, 2011), 93-132, p. 115 n.64.

Subjects and Contexts

  • Ancient Bronzes

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu