SculptureGreek6th-5th century BCE

Seated Woman

c. 500 BCE

Description

Woman seated on a chair or throne, her head covered and her hands resting on her knees. Her long garment now appears white, with a red stripe running down the center; traces of folds indicated in dark paint can be seen on the proper right upper arm. There are remains of what appears to have been a necklace. Bright blue paint survives on the veil that covers the woman's head and falls over her shoulders, and black paint on the four rows of curls above her forehead. Long black strands of hair once framed the neck. Atop the curls sits a bright red diadem. The woman's eyebrows and irises were rendered in dark paint; a spot of bright red pigment can be seen at the mouth. The sides of the chair appear to have been white, while red ocher was applied over the white slip in the top and front sections. The back of the chair is still covered in accretions that were fully or partly removed from the rest of the figure. The front of the figure was formed in a mold. The back is flat and the lower part of the figure hollowed out. The clay is orange-colored and quite soft, indicating that the statuette was made in Attica. Numerous terracottas of this type have been found in Athens, but they were exported throughout the Greek world, as well. The finds from the Athenian Acropolis suggest that the seated woman represented a goddess, likely Athena. The terracottas were also deposited in graves, however, and mortal women could be represented in the same pose and similar attire.

Classification

Sculpture

Technique

Mold-made

Medium

Painted terracotta

Culture

Greek

Period

Archaic period, Late, to Early Classical

Century

6th-5th century BCE

Division

Asian and Mediterranean Art

Department

Department of Ancient and Byzantine Art & Numismatics

Dimensions

H. 14 × W. 7.8 × D. 8 cm (5 1/2 × 3 1/16 × 3 1/8 in.)

Provenance

Louis-Joseph-Raphaël Collin [1], Paris, (by 1890-1911), sold; to William A. Clark [2], New York, (by 1911-1925), bequest; to Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., (1926-2018) [3], transferred; to American University Museum, Washington, D.C., (2018-2021), sold; [through Sands of Time, Washington, D.C.]; to Harvard Art Museums, 2022. 1. Louis-Joseph-Raphaël Collin (1850-1916) 2. William Andrews Clark (1839-1925) 3. Following the closure of the Corcoran Gallery in 2014, its collections were physically transferred to the National Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C.); the Corcoran Board of Trustees retained ownership until the collections were officially transferred to and accessioned into other museums’ collections (in 2018, in this case).