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A robed woman.

A woman stands straight upright. She wears draping robes, a thick necklace around her neck and a headdress which may be a crown or chain of leaves around her head. Both of her arms are bent, and her right hand is empty as if reaching for something, and her left hand holds a round object, the size of her palm. She looks straight and slightly to the right. The surface is a mottled red and green everywhere, with no distinction between skin and hair and fabric.

Gallery Text

Bronze is an alloy of copper and tin that has been used for thousands of years to make objects as diverse as sculpture and figurines, weapons and armor, and jewelry and tableware. The addition of tin and sometimes lead made the alloy more versatile and lowered its melting point; another common copper alloy is brass (copper and zinc), which was in widespread use in the Roman period. Although other materials, like stone, glass, and terracotta, were available, copper alloy items were valued for their golden sheen, versatility, and durability. The material lent prestige and beauty to objects like these statuettes, most of which would have been dedicated to the gods. Modern bronzes are often artificially patinated, like the Rodin sculpture in this colonnade. While ancient bronzes were sometimes gilded or deliberately darkened, the unaltered surfaces naturally acquired a red, green, or brown patina over time.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1956.43
Title
Woman Holding a Pomegranate
Other Titles
Former Title: Turan
Classification
Sculpture
Work Type
sculpture, statuette
Date
third quarter 5th century BCE
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Europe, Etruria
Find Spot: Europe, Italy, Tuscany
Period
Classical period, High
Culture
Etruscan
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/303414

Location

Location
Level 3, Room 3200, Ancient Mediterranean and Middle Eastern Art, Classical Sculpture
View this object's location on our interactive map

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Leaded bronze
Technique
Cast, lost-wax process
Dimensions
20.3 x 8.4 x 4 cm (8 x 3 5/16 x 1 9/16 in.)
Technical Details

Chemical Composition: ICP-MS/AAA data from sample, Leaded Bronze:
Cu, 86.18; Sn, 9.89; Pb, 3.45; Zn, 0.068; Fe, 0.05; Ni, 0.07; Ag, 0.06; Sb, less than 0.02; As, 0.11; Bi, 0.108; Co, 0.012; Au, less than 0.01; Cd, less than 0.001
J. Riederer

Technical Observations: The patina is green with a large area of red and some spots of blue. Deep corrosion has made the surface brittle, and there are many chip losses, including on the face and the fingers of the right hand. Small areas of the back, hair, and the feet are perfectly preserved. A deep chisel mark (1 cm wide) on the back of the right leg is modern. Some green inpainting is present in the face.

The statuette is a solid cast made using the lost-wax process. It is likely that a mold was used to form the general shape and features of the wax model, which was then refined with surface decoration worked directly into the wax. The condition of the bronze surface makes it difficult to be sure of the extent that fine details may have been further refined in the cast bronze, but it is likely that some cold working was used. A projection (8 mm in diameter) from the bottom of the left heel was sawed off in modern times. The projection appears to be a tang that would have held the figure to a base.


Henry Lie (submitted 2001)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Elie Borowski collection, Basel, (by 1956), sold; to the Fogg Art Museum, 1956.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Purchase through the generosity of 24 Friends of the Fogg Art Museum and the Alpheus Hyatt Purchasing and Francis H. Burr Funds
Accession Year
1956
Object Number
1956.43
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Descriptions

Published Catalogue Text: Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes at the Harvard Art Museums
The woman stands frontally, with her proper right arm extended at waist height and her fingers curled as though she once held an object that is now lost. Her left hand grasps a spherical object with a projecting knob, representing a pomegranate. Her hair is parted down the middle, with individual locks rendered, and is either short or curled under at the nape of her neck; a short fringe and slightly longer locks frame her face in front of her ears and below the wreath or crown that encircles her head. The crown is more prominent on the front of her head, with scalloped edges, while on the back it is a simple band. She has wide, heavily lidded, almond-shaped eyes and a firm mouth; her nose is damaged.

The woman wears a necklace that is beaded around the front of her neck and a simple band at the back of her neck. Her clothing is elaborately decorated. Her long dress (chiton), with elbow-length sleeves, is bordered at the bottom by two thin linear bands and by a raised, rope-like band around the collar and along the edge of the exposed sleeve. Over her dress is a mantle (himation) that drapes over her proper left shoulder. The edge of the mantle bears a raised border similar to the dress that falls in a zigzag pattern. She wears elaborate, pointed shoes (calcei repandi) with laces clearly rendered on the tops and soles on the bottoms. The figure is fully modeled in the round.

The identity of this figure is uncertain. Turan, the Etruscan goddess of love and beauty, has been suggested, but this cannot be confirmed (1). The fruit that she holds and the clothing she wears could be appropriate to a goddess or a noblewoman (2).

NOTES:

1. See, for example, M. True, S. F. Doeringer, and J. J. Herrman, eds., The Gods Delight: The Human Figure in Classical Bronze, exh. cat., Cleveland Museum of Art (Cleveland, 1989) 235-39, no. 43.

2. See L. Bonfante Warren, “Etruscan Dress as Historical Source: Some Problems and Examples,” American Journal of Archaeology 75.3 (1971): 277-84, esp. 280-82; and L. E. Lundeen, “In Search of the Etruscan Priestess: A Re-examination of the Hatrencu,” in Religion in Republican Italy, eds. C. E. Schultz and P. B. Harvey, Yale Classical Studies 55 (Cambridge, 2006) 34-61, esp. 37.

Lisa M. Anderson

Publication History

  • "Ancient Acquisition at Fogg Art Museum", Boston Sunday Post, April 29, 1956, "Arts and Antiques" (front page).
  • "Rare Bronze at Fogg Museum", New York Herald Tribune, April 22, 1956, p. 27, ill.
  • Dorothy Adlow, "The Roman Comes to Town", The Christian Science Monitor, Sept. 28, 1956, ill.
  • Marjan C. Galestin, "Etruscan and Italic Bronze Statuettes" , Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, (Ph.D. diss.), p. 74, no. V 73.
  • George M. A. Hanfmann, "An Etruscan Goddess", Fogg Art Museum Annual Report 1955-1956 (1955-1956), 44-45, 60.
  • George M. A. Hanfmann, "An Etruscan Goddess", Archaeology (1956), Vol. 9, No. 4, 230-232, ill.
  • Martin Gordon, "The University", Harvard Alumni Bulletin (1956), Vol. 58, No. 14, 583-86, p. 584, ill.
  • George M. A. Hanfmann, Etruskische Plastik, H. E. Gunther (Stuttgart, 1956), p. 7, pl. 28.
  • Emeline H. Richardson, Review of "Etruskische Plastik" by G. M. A. Hanfmann, American Journal of Archaeology (1958), Vol. 62.3, 343-45, p. 344.
  • Hans Jucker, "Etruscan Votive Bronzes of Populonia", Art and Technology: a Symposium on Classical Bronzes, ed. Suzannah F. Doeringer, David Gordon Mitten, and Arthur Steinberg, M.I.T. Press (Cambridge, MA, 1967), pp. 212-13; see also 235.
  • David Gordon Mitten and Suzannah F. Doeringer, Master Bronzes from the Classical World, exh. cat., Verlag Philipp von Zabern (Mainz am Rhein, Germany, 1967), p. 169, no. 168.
  • Richard Stuart Teitz, Masterpieces of Etruscan Art, exh. cat., Worcester Art Museum (Worcester, MA, 1967), p. 71-72, no. 59.
  • Larissa Bonfante Warren, "Etruscan Dress as Historical Source: Some Problems and Examples", American Journal of Archaeology (1971), Vol. 75, 277-284, p. 281, pl. 67, fig. 16.
  • Gabriele Pfister-Roesgen, Die etruskischen Spiegel des 5. Jhs. v. Chr., Peter Lang GmbH (Frankfurt am Main, 1975), p. 153.
  • George M. A. Hanfmann and David Gordon Mitten, "The Art of Classical Antiquity", Apollo (May 1978), vol. 107, no. 195, pp. 362-369, p. 10.
  • David Gordon Mitten and Amy Brauer, Dialogue with Antiquity, The Curatorial Achievement of George M. A. Hanfmann, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1982), p. 14, no. 46.
  • Mauro Cristofani, I Bronzi degli Etruschi, Istituto Geografico de Agostini-Novara (Novara, 1985), p. 270, no. 53.
  • Kristin A. Mortimer and William G. Klingelhofer, Harvard University Art Museums: A Guide to the Collections, Harvard University Art Museums and Abbeville Press (Cambridge and New York, 1986), p. 99, no. 109, ill.
  • Marion True, Suzannah F. Doeringer, and John J. Herrmann Jr., The Gods Delight: The Human Figure in Classical Bronze, exh. cat., Cleveland Museum of Art/Indiana University Press (Cleveland, OH, 1989), p. 235-39, no. 43.
  • George Ortiz, "Connoisseurship and Antiquity", Small Bronze Sculpture from the Ancient World, ed. Marion True and Jerry Podany, J. Paul Getty Museum (Malibu, CA, 1990), 253-280, p. 264, fig. 9.
  • Otto J. Brendel, Etruscan Art, Yale University Press (U.S.) (New Haven, CT, 1995), p. 309, fig. 227.
  • James Cuno, Alvin L. Clark, Jr., Ivan Gaskell, and William W. Robinson, Harvard's Art Museums: 100 Years of Collecting, ed. James Cuno, Harvard University Art Museums and Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (Cambridge, MA, 1996), p. 106-107, ill.
  • Masterpieces of world art : Fogg Art Museum, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Busch-Reisinger Museum, 1997
  • [Reproduction Only], Persephone, ed. Courtney Dungan, Vol. 5, No. 1, 2000, p. 18.
  • Carol S. Lawson and Robert F. Lawson, Live and Learn: Perspectives on the Questing Spirit, Swedenborg Foundation (West Chester, PA, 2001), p. 104, ill.
  • Thesaurus Cultus et Rituum Antiquorum, J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles, CA, 2004-2012), I 2.d Weihgeschenke, Rom. 262.
  • Jean MacIntosh Turfa, "Votive Offerings in Etruscan Religion", The Religion of the Etruscans, ed. Nancy T. de Grummond and Erika Simon, University of Texas Press (Austin, TX, 2006), 90-115, p. 108, n.25.
  • Patricia Monaghan, Encyclopedia of Goddesses and Heroines, Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. (Santa Barbara, CA, 2010), p. 467, ill.
  • [Reproduction Only], Persephone, Vol. 11, No. 1, Spring 2011, p. 43.

Exhibition History

  • The Etruscans: Artists of Early Italy, Walters Art Gallery, 03/15/1958 - 05/04/1958
  • Masterpieces of Etruscan Art, Worcester Art Museum, 04/21/1967 - 06/04/1967
  • Master Bronzes from the Classical World, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 12/04/1967 - 01/23/1968; City Art Museum of St. Louis, St. Louis, 03/01/1968 - 04/13/1968; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, 05/08/1968 - 06/30/1968
  • Dialogue with Antiquity: The Curatorial Achievement of George M.A. Hanfmann, Fogg Art Museum, 05/07/1982 - 06/26/1982
  • Re-View: S422 Ancient & Byzantine Art & Numismatics, Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 04/12/2008 - 06/18/2011
  • 32Q: 3200 West Arcade, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050

Subjects and Contexts

  • Ancient Bronzes

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu