Terracotta figurine of a woman with mirror
- Title:
- Terracotta figurine of a woman with mirror
- Collection:
- Cornell Cast Collection
- Creator:
- Fritz Gurlitt (Gallery) (reproduction)
Unknown (original)
- Photographer:
- Mericle, Danielle
- Date:
- ca. 1890-1900
probably 3rd or 2nd c. BCE
- Site:
- Berlin, Germany (reproduction)
probably Greece (original) - Location:
- Goldwin Smith Hall, former Temple of Zeus space, Cornell University
previously, 726 University Avenue
Berlin, Germany (reproduction)
probably Greece (original) - ID Number:
- CCC_0588
- Accession Number:
- Sage no. 453
Gurlitt XXXIII
453 (sticker in front)
black point sticker
in pencil underneath: Sab. II pl. 98.
601 - File Name:
- CCC_0588.tif
- Original Measurements:
- 27 (H) cm
- Culture:
- Greek
- Style/Period:
- Hellenistic Greek
- Work Type:
- casts (sculpture)
- Materials/Techniques:
- terracotta, mold-made replica (sculpture)
terracotta sculpture in the round, mold-made (original) - Subject:
- Tanagra figurines
- Image View Type:
- overall
- Image View Description:
- from front
- Measurement:
- 28.3 (with pedestal) x 27 (without pedestal) (centimeters, height x height)
pedestal: 11.5 x 9.7 (centimeters, width x diameter) - Description:
- This is a terracotta replica of a terracotta figurine of a standing woman holding a mirror. The figure stands placing her weight on her left leg with her right leg resting slightly back. She is dressed in a full-length chiton and a himation that veils her head, wraps around her waist, and rests over her left arm. The front portion of each foot is visible at the hemline of her garment. The woman's long, wavy hair is visible under the veil. She gazes into the mirror she holds up in her left hand and holds her right hand at her neck. The himation is painted blue with some paint flaked away, the veil is gray, the mirror green, the chiton light brown, and the hair is painted red. The mirror is broken away from the figure but preserved and the pinky finger is missing from the left hand. Some paint has flaked away. In his 1885 sales catalog, Gurlitt locates the original of this object at the Hermitage in St. Petersburg (no. 33). It is also included in Furtwaengler's catalog of the Saburov Collection (plate XCVIII) published between 1883-1887, where it is said to have come from Tanagra. The object is not encountered in the Hermitage's online collection database. The burial sites in and around the Boeotian town of Tanagra underwent large-scale looting in the 1870s in pursuit of Hellenistic terracotta figurines known then, as now, as Tanagra figurines, or simply as Tanagras. The Hellenistic figurines discovered in the graves there--most commonly depicting women and girls in acts of leisure or daily life, and also depicting Aphrodite, Eros, young men and boys, and grotesque figures--appealed greatly to the sensibilities of the time and quickly became popular among collectors and the general public. By 1873, the Greek government made attempts to control the looting and established official excavations around the area. Smaller-scale grave-robbing continued alongside these less-than-thoroughly documented excavations. In addition to looting, forgery and extensive restoration of these mold-made objects became lucrative practice when demand for the objects was at its highest.
- Notes:
- Items in the Cornell Cast Collection are meant for inventory and reference purposes. Metadata may not be complete in all cases.
- Bibliography:
- Reynold Higgins, Tanagra and the Figurines (London: Trefoil Books, 1986)
I. Kriseleit and G. Zimmer (eds.), Bürgerwelten (Mainz: Philipp von Zabern, 1994)
Violaine Jeammet, ed., Tanagras. Figurines for Life and Eternity. The Musée du Louvre's Collection of Greek Figurines (Valencia: Fundación Bancaja, 2010)
Adolphe Furtwaengler, La Collection Sabouroff: Monuments de l'Art Grec, vol. II (Berlin: A. Asher, 1883-1887), pl. XCVIII
Illustrated catalogue of the series of Fritz Gurlitt's Tanagra figures (London: Obach and Co., 1885), no. 33 - Repository:
- Cornell University (current)
St. Petersburg, Hermitage (original) - Collecting Program:
- Cornell Collections of Antiquities
- Format:
- Image
- Rights:
- The images in the Cornell Collection of Antiquities: Casts are protected by copyright, and the copyright holders are their creators, generally Cornell University Library, Annetta Alexandridis, and Verity Platt. This collection of plaster casts owned by Cornell University was photographed by Cornell University Library, Alexandridis, Platt, and Andreya L. Mihaloew from 2010-2015, with funding from a Digital Collections in Arts and Sciences Grant to Annetta Alexandridis. Cornell is providing access to the materials for research and personal use. The written permission of any copyright and other rights holders is required for distribution, reproduction, or other use that extends beyond what is authorized by fair use and other statutory exemptions. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item. Please contact Annetta Alexandridis and Verity Platt for more information about this collection, or to request permission to use these images.