Terracotta figurine of woman seated with writing tablet
- Title:
- Terracotta figurine of woman seated with writing tablet
- Collection:
- Cornell Cast Collection
- Creator:
- Fritz Gurlitt (Gallery) (reproduction)
Unknown (original)
- Photographer:
- Mericle, Danielle
- Date:
- ca. 1890-1900
3rd or 2nd c. BCE or late 19th c.
- Site:
- Berlin, Germany (reproduction)
probably Greece (original) - Location:
- Goldwin Smith Hall (Room 128), Cornell University
previouly, 726 University Avenue
Berlin, Germany (reproduction)
probably Greece (original) - ID Number:
- CCC_0585
- Accession Number:
- Sage no. 468
Gurlitt 34
468 (sticker on pedestal and underneath)
black point sticker
595 - File Name:
- CCC_0585.tif
- Original Measurements:
- 17.5 (H) cm
- Culture:
- Greek
- Style/Period:
- Hellenistic Greek, possibly modern in Hellenistic Greek style
- Work Type:
- casts (sculpture)
- Materials/Techniques:
- terracotta, mold-made replica (sculpture)
terracotta sculpture in the round, mold-made, painted (original) - Subject:
- Tanagra figurines
- Image View Type:
- overall
- Image View Description:
- from side
- Measurement:
- 19.5 (with pedestal) x 18 (without pedestal) (centimeters, height x height)
pedestal: 10 x 14.2 (centimeters, width x diameter) - Description:
- This is a terracotta replica of a terracotta figurine of a seated woman holding a writing tablet in her lap. She sits upright on a rock with her legs parted and both feet flat on the ground. With her right hand she supports herself against the rock, and with her left she supports a folding writing tablet (diptych). She looks down toward the tablet on her lap. She wears a short-sleeved chiton that is belted just below her breasts. Her curly hair is tied up high on her head and she wears a thick fabric headband. Earrings are indicated with large black dots. The chiton and headband are painted blue, the hair is red, and the skin is white. The color of the terracotta is visible through the paint. The replica is in generally good condition, but has sustained some damage to the left hand and upper portion of the tablet. In his 1885 sales catalog, Gurlitt locates the original of this object at the Hermitage in St. Petersburg (no. 34). It is also included in Furtwaengler's catalog of the Saburov Collection (plate LXXXVI) published between 1883-1887, where it is said to have come from Tanagra. In that catalog, the tablet rests upside down on the figure's lap. 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. LXXXVI
Illustrated catalogue of the series of Fritz Gurlitt's Tanagra figures (London: Obach and Co., 1885), no. 34 - 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.