HELLENISTIC TERRACOTTA STATUETTE OF A DANCING WOMAN,
Her left leg advancing, her left hand pressed against her hip beneath the fabric of her billowing garment, and her right hand gathering the fabric to keep her from tripping. Remains of white slip over all.
This outstandingly beautiful and well-preserved ceramic sculpture is a votive figure from the middle of the first millennium BC, and represents a Phoenician deity. It depicts a goddess standing on an integral base, which bears an offerings bowl (partly obscured by calcareous concretions), her right hand raised and her left hand at her throat. However, it is the quality of the artistry and the almost miraculous preservation which makes this sculpture so remarkable, for most of the details that can be seen here have been eroded in other examples. The face is exceptional, carved with a serene expression and a half smile, with lidded eyes, a long nose and rounded cheeks.
Acroterion with winged horse. Cerveteri, 500 - 475 B.C., polychrome terracotta. Gregorian Etruscan Museum.
“At the right end of the triangular pediment of a temple, against the background of the final slab covering the lateral beam of the tympanum, the animal emerges in clear relief, in the act of taking flight, with its front hooves worked in the round and silhouetted against the sky. A sober polychrome decoration, expertly alternated with unembellished areas, defines the details of the figure and qualifies the surface, decorated with scales. The horse would originally have been harnessed with a bit, possibly made of bronze.” (x)
[id: photo of the acroterion described above, which depicts the head, neck, and wing of a winged horse.]
Antefixes with the heads of a maenad and of Silenus. Cerveteri, Jacobini excavations, 1870. 4th century B.C., terracotta. Gregorian Etrusan Museum. (x)
[id: two photos of the antefixes described above. both antefixes have wide nimbuses decorated with alternating lotus flower palmettes on different color backgrounds: black for the maenad and red for silenus. the maenad is a pale woman wearing a diadem with rosettes and two large cluster-shaped earrings. silenus, wearing an ivy crown, has red skin, a long beard, wide-set eyes, furrowed brow, bared teeth, and large ears. end id]
Bust of a woman. Cerveteri, 300 - 250 B.C., terracotta. Gregorian Etruscan Museum.
“The bust is not among the votive terracottas produced in series using moulds, but instead constitutes an original work modelled directly by a capable artist for a high-ranking commission. It depicts a relatively young women with well defined features and is clearly intended as a portrait. The surface of the face and neck is very smooth in order to render the luminosity of the complexion. The lines defined on the neck and below the chin indicate the passing of time on a face that appears to be lost in thought rather than ideally detached. The lion’s-head earrings, which reproduce exemplars in gold found throughout the Etruscan area and in Magna Graecia (around 325 – 200 B.C.) along with the voluminous hair inspired by portraits of Alexander the Great would enable it to be dated from the early Hellenistic period. Mid-Italic portraiture is in part indebted to the formal conquests of Greek art, which during the height of the Hellenistic age developed the first dynastic portraits. Portraiture is a genre that is well attested to in Italic culture, adopted both in the votive and funerary areas, and was subsequently taken up by the Roman aristocracies due to the importance attached to the individual image. The genre passed via Roman art into western figurative culture.” (x)
[id: photo of the terracotta bust described above, which depicts a woman gazing into the distance. end id]
Antefix in the form of a woman’s head. Cerveteri, 525 - 500 B.C., polychrome terracotta. Gregorian Etruscan Museum.
“The antefix, of the type without a nimbus, decorated the tiles at the ends of the eaves of the roof, constituting a serial decoration. It has the form of a female head, the details of which are defined through finely detailed polychrome painting, rather than in relief. The head is crowned with a diadem, decorated with a double row of leaves and small spears. She wears a pair of disc-shaped earrings with a rosette painted in the centre.” (x)
[id: photo of the terracotta antefix described above, which depicts the head of a woman who is smiling slightly. end id]
2019.04.29 Nayabad #Mosque - a wonderful sample of great #Mughal #architecture in #Bangladesh. - - Created by the Muslim architects who came from the West (Persia is the assumption) to build the nearby famous Hindu temple Kantojir Mondir (aka Kantajew Temple) this mosque was completed in 1793 by those workers. There are three arched doors (the middle one seen here) which welcome the visitors inside the mosque. Rectangular #terracotta plaques beautifully decorate the outside mosque walls. - - #history #travel #architecturephotography #architecturelovers #architecture_hunter #mosque #travelblogger #travelphotography #islamicarchitecture #travelphotography #travelphoto #landmark #historical #dinajpur #photographersofbangladesh #beautifulbangladesh #bangladeshinpositivelight #islam #design #persian #wanderlust #empire #mughalarchitecture #shotoniphone #bnw #bnwphotography #bnw_society #bnw_shotz (at Dinajpur, Rājshāhi, Bangladesh) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bxdz6pNHMQP/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=te4slt3htyro
