Exceptional Canosan Polychrome Female Figure

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Exceptional Antiquities, Asian, Ethnographic

By Artemis Gallery

Feb 18, 2021

Set Reminder 2021-02-18 10:00:00 2021-02-18 10:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : Exceptional Antiquities, Asian, Ethnographic https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/artemis-gallery/exceptional-antiquities-asian-ethnographic-6373
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• Lot Description
  Magna Graecia, Apulia, Canosan Hellenistic Period, ca. 3rd century BCE. A fantastically expressive, mold-made pottery votive figure of a woman, made to serve as a mourner, standing in contrapposto with her hand on her hip and draped in a blue himation over a pink chiton. Crowned by a blue wreath, her brown hair is piled atop her head in a bun-like coiffure. Her face is small and delicate, with evidence remaining for pink lips, eyes, and brows, and flanked by a pair of annular pink earrings. Canosa, or Canosion as it was known then, was a major center of the ceramics and pottery trade when it was a Greek polis. It produced truly unique pottery, completely different in decoration style (although not in shape) from earlier and neighboring traditions. The clay is buff, with the decoration applied directly to it without the use of slip. Size: 2.375" W x 7" H (6 cm x 17.8 cm)
  
  Female figures like this one played an interesting role in Canosan funerary practices. They were placed into Canosan tombs as replacements for large red-figure kraters from the century before, but first, mourners carried them in funerary processions and kept them present while they carried out rituals at the tomb. Although almost all of the statues known from Canosan tombs depict women, they seem to represent goddesses or mourners, rather than the gender of the deceased - in this society, young women played a major role as mourners. The Canosans, like other members of Classical society, believed that the spirits of the dead remained at the tomb and watched over the living. Canosan tombs were re-opened frequently to bury members of the same lineage; hence, these figures were probably reused as well, maintaining the connection between the living and the dead.
  
  Provenance: acquired by current owner in January 2021; ex-Edgar L. Owens Galleries, Hopatcong, New Jersey, USA collection, acquired in October 1996; ex-Harmer Rooke Gallery, New York, New York, USA
  
  All items legal to buy/sell under U.S. Statute covering cultural patrimony Code 2600, CHAPTER 14, and are guaranteed to be as described or your money back.
  
  A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany all winning bids.
  
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  #162610

  Condition

  Two collection labels on interior of base. Intact and excellent with impressive remaining pigments.
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