Tanagra statuette

[Didier Attaix]

Hello everybody,

I am not Bill Gates and I never buy at rocket prices.

Below is a beautiful Tanagra artefact in almost perfect condition, left thumb broken (H 21 cm), which I bought for nuts (€650) in a recent web sale. It was misdescribed. I very much enjoy poor descriptions. 

All the best,

Didier

 

Edited November 26, 2023 by Didier Attaix

[Kali]

It's lovely, congrats. What's the size of it?

[ominus1]

...very pretty!

Edited November 26, 2023 by ominus1

[DonnaML]

 

1 hour ago, Didier Attaix said:

Hello everybody,

I am not Bill Gates and I never buy at rocket prices.

Below is a beautiful Tanagra artefact in almost perfect condition, left thumb broken (H 21 cm), which I bought for nuts (€650) in a recent web sale. It was misdescribed. I very much enjoy poor descriptions. 

All the best,

Didier

 

Wow. Usually it costs more than that just to buy a decent Tanagra head broken off from the rest of the statue!

[kirispupis]

I must admit I know absolutely nothing about statues, but I can certainly understand that it should have cost much more!

I do have a coin of Tanagra. I'm not sure if all these artifacts come from Tanagra or if it's just a name though.

Boeotia. Tanagra
4th Century BCE
AR Obol 10.44mm .64g
Obverse: Boeotian shield
Reverse: T-A, forepart of horse galloping right
SNG Copenhagen 229

[antwerpen2306]

very nice and well conserved statue. Have you checked the possibility of a Myrina type with statues more lively than the Tanagra. I have only heads in my collection and show here an Tanagra and a Myrina type. The colour of the clay indicates the Tanagra type.

@kirispupis these artifacts were produces all over the Greek world from the 4th century BC on for Tanagra and the second for Myrina.

 

         at left Tanagra, 53 mm, at right Myrina, 47 mm. Some for the bad photos. Both found in Sicily.

 

 

[DonnaML]

I have three Greek/Hellenistic terracotta heads, but only the first one was sold to me as specifically a "Tanagra" head. I usually take that description as referring to the style rather than necessarily meaning that an artifiact actually originated in Tanagra.

Greece, 4th Century BCE. Terracotta "Tanagra" head [reference is to Tanagra, Boeotia] of young woman. 39 mm. high (plus peg is an additional 16 mm.), 32 mm. from front to back of head. Purchased 1998, Arnold Saslow, NJ.

Greece, 4th/3rd Century BCE, Terracotta head of young woman with long neck and with elaborate coiffure, wearing stephane[?]. 3" high. Purchased 2018. Ex. Christie's (date unknown).






 

Greece, 5th-4th Century BCE, terracotta head of old man (comic/grotesque), 32 mm. high, 38 mm. from front to back of head. Purchased 1998, Arnold Saslow, NJ.*






 

* Grotesque terracotta figures like mine, often portraying old men, were very popular in Ancient Greece, especially in the Hellenistic period, and have been variously interpreted as being inspired by comic figures on the stage, and/or as having apotropaic functions, and/or as being purely decorative. See the many photographs of such figures in the dissertation entitled "Hellenistic grotesque terracotta figurines, Problems of iconographical interpretation," at https://www.researchgate.net/public...Problems-of-iconographical-interpretation.pdf. See also this discussion, accompanied by many photos, at https://journals.openedition.org/acost/945, of "Grotesque terracotta figurines and their uses." arguing for the apotropaic interpretation:

"As we will see, by utilizing an ugly, non-canonical form, many objects could have an apotropaic function. From the fourth century B.C.E onwards, small-scale sculpture developed a rich repertoire of ridiculous and grotesque types that set a trajectory different from public and conspicuously visible art. The so-called grotesques were an enhancement of the Hellenistic interest in the human body and its weakness and imperfections by depicting ill and deformed individuals. Their variety ranges from representations of clinically diagnosable deformities to exaggerated physical abnormalities (fig. 4).24 According to Giuliani, bronze and terracotta figurines of this kind were life-like representations of beggars and others who gathered at big feasts in temples or at the houses of the wealthy. In the latter case, they indicated the importance and wealth of the host because the more beggars attracted to an event the greater the fortune of the event organizer. By implication, the bronze and terracotta portraits of these marginal people could have become symbols and charms of good luck that would have been placed in private houses.

Many grotesque representations, however, did not arise from the Hellenistic world of feasts and symposia and depict different sorts of deformities, as the example at hand demonstrates.26 Terracotta figurines developed differently because of their suitability and openness to non-canonical forms, but much also has to do with their use. Some of the Hellenistic or Greco-Roman figurines have a loop on their back that indicates that they were to be suspended or worn as an amulet.27 These types of objects are described by ancient sources as a baskanion, or charm.28 Pollux29 says that the term was used for ridiculous figurines (geloia tina), made by blacksmiths and served to turn away envy (epi phthonou apotrope) – note that he uses the word apotropein to describe their function. These figurines, according to Phrynichos,30 were also suspended by the artisans themselves to protect their own work. Furthermore, we read in the Vita Aesopi that the deformed Aesop was considered a baskanion by the other slaves, who thought their master had bought him for that purpose.31 Fear of the evil eye, according to Plutarch, seems to have been the most common impetus for the use of this kind of apotropaion: “When those possessed by envy (phthonos) to this degree let their glance fall upon a person, their eyes, which are close to the mind and draw from it the evil influence and passion, then assail that person as if with poisoned arrows; hence, I conclude, it is not paradoxical or incredible that they should have an effect on the persons who encounter their gaze… What I have said shows why the so-called amulets (probaskania) are thought to be a protection against malice. The strange look of them (atopia) attracts the gaze, so that it exerts less pressure upon its victim.”32 Varro also mentions the connection between the ugly (turpicula), and the unfavorable (scaevus), but those meanings can change to favorable, he says, when the object is used as an amulet."

[antwerpen2306]

I like very much the second head and also the third, the old man as I am an old man now🙂 but looking a little bit better, I hope (?) 😄

I have a artefact, representing a man's face in my collection, dating late Hellenistic from Egypt, 105 x 70 mm.

Sorry for the quality of the photos, but I have not the camera to make it sharp. Since about 4 years ago, I am making an inventory of all my collections, coins, antiquities, paintings... for my daughter. It is a lot of work, but very good for good for the mental healthy

What me wonders in the first head, is the peg. I have never seen it. For this Tanagra and Myrina statues, they made combinations of all parts of the statue with different parts they had to make different statues, but this peg I never saw. 

 

 

[Didier Attaix]

Hello everybody,

Thanks Donna for your detailed description of the grotesque heads. I bought one in 2011 from Arte Primitivo in NYC. H 7.6, W 5.0, D 6.0 cm.

All the best,

Didier