Europa on a Running Bull
c. 460-440 BCE
Description
Complete figurine in good condition. A woman, dressed, riding side-saddle on a running bull. Small head with regular features, with hair pulled up into a demure coiffure. She wears the “peplos of Athena”, and leans with her left arm on the bull’s neck, her hand grabbing onto his right horn. She keeps her right arm close to the body, draping her hand gently over the bull’s rump. Her legs curve to the back, as if propelled there by the bull’s forward momentum. The bull himself faces slightly towards the viewer (towards his proper right flank). The right foreleg is bent, so that the hoof does not lay flat on the ground. Would have been painted originally. Significant traces of white ground extant. Pink pigment visible on Europa’s face, chest, legs and chiton, with a narrow band of red at the figure’s bottom edge. Hollow, with solid heads. Mold-made in a single-sided mold, likely plaster. Plain slab at back, with large rectangular venthole. Clay treated differently at front: better levigated.
Dimensions
12.5 × 11.5 cm (4 15/16 × 4 1/2 in.)
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