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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1933.120
Title
Female Votive Statuette
Classification
Sculpture
Work Type
statuette, sculpture
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/310837

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Leaded bronze
Technique
Cast, lost-wax process
Dimensions
8.4 x 3.6 x 2 cm (3 5/16 x 1 7/16 x 13/16 in.)
Technical Details

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

K. Eremin, January 2014

Technical Observations: The patina is green with several small spots of red. Many small abrasions on the back appear to predate burial and are not related to manufacture. 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. The eyes, mouth, elbows, and other features have been improved by cold working using a file-like tool. The approximately twenty 1-mm holes dotting the surface are small casting flaws.


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
1933.120
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 orant is perhaps female, given the curved shape of the head (resembling the round headdresses worn by some female statuettes, e.g., 1933.126) and lack of male genitals (1). The top of the head is curved and featureless and is completely flat on the back. The facial features are disproportionate to each other: the molded eyes are very large, the nose is smaller, and the mouth is indicated by only a tiny incision. The heart-shaped face has a very small pointed chin on a comparatively large head. The neck is broad and somewhat flattened; there may be some indications of a necklace or collar on the front. The torso is triangular, with very broad, sloping shoulders leading down to a much narrower waist and lower body. The upper arms are pressed to the sides, although separation is indicated by deep gouges on the back and on either side of the forearms on the front. The arms are bent at the elbow, with the palms pressed flat on the collarbone. Incised lines indicate the separation of the long fingers. The clothing is plain; a long tunic or dress seems to terminate just above the feet, where the limbs separate. Short, shallow lines indicate toes. The back is featureless.

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. For similar praying figures, see L. Prados Torreira, Exvotos ibericos de bronce del Museo Arqueologico Nacional (Madrid, 1992) 219-20, nos. 573 and 577. Prados Torreira includes these in her group of female figures wearing a low headdress. Compare also ibid. 182, no. 122, a very similar male statuette. This piece is also comparable to the body of R. Lantier, Bronzes votifs ibériques (Paris, 1935) no. 224, 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; 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
  • 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