‘Tanagra’ type figurine

The young woman is turned toward her right. She stands with her weight on her right leg, with right hip thrust upward. Her left leg is drawn to the side, exposing her closed shoe. She wears a long chiton with curving neck-line, the lower part hanging in vertical folds. Her himation hangs from her head, leaving uncovered part of her hair and her neck. Together with her body, her arms and hands are shrouded entirely, the right hand across her breast and holding the edge of her himation, the left pulling the overfold forward. The hair of the figure is parted in the middle, pulled around the temples and forms a krobylos beneath the cloth at the back. Her head is turned coquettishly to the side.

The general composition is reminiscent of the Hellenistic sculptural type known as the “Greater Herculanean”, the influence of which has been recognized in many of the characteristic types of Tanagra figurines. The figure may be compared to Tanagra types from Myrina and Cyrene, which differ in the tortion of the pose. A closer parallel in pose and gesture exists in the figurine in Munich.

PUBLICATION
Vlassopoulou Ch. 2006. Cat. no. 68, in Choremi-Spetsieri Α. – Zarkadas Α. (eds), The Paul and Alexandra Canellopoulos Museum. Ancient Art, Athens, 107.