Published Catalogue Text: Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes at the Harvard Art Museums
The highly abstract head and face of a male figure surmounts a flat rectangular shaft representing the figure’s body (1). The face has a prominent angular nose, and the lips were made by a horizontal cut in the bronze. The area of the eyes is indicated by pronounced ridges above a smooth plane on both sides of the nose. The base of the rectangular body protrudes at a right angle to form the feet.
Thousands of small, anthropomorphic copper alloy statuettes and anatomical votives have been recovered from remote sanctuary sites in south-central Spain, particularly Collado de los Jardines and Castellar de Santisteban, but it is not certain to which god or gods they were dedicated (2). Many of the statuettes depict individuals, some of whom are represented in poses of prayer or offering (3). Some are very abstract and schematically rendered, while others wear identifiable contemporary clothing (4). Abstract votive figures like this example begin to be produced in the fourth century BCE to supply an ever-increasing number of worshippers with relatively inexpensive offerings. Although hundreds of such figures have been found, each has individual workmanship, and no two are identical.
NOTES:
1. For similar votive figures, see V. Hibbs, Iberian Antiquities from the Collection of Leon Levy and Shelby White, exh. cat., The Spanish Institute (New York, 1993) 66-67, no. 22; G. Zahlhaas, Idole: Frühe Götterbilder und Opfergaben (Mainz, 1985) 135, nos. 61-62; L. Prados Torreira, Exvotos ibericos de bronce del Museo Arqueologico Nacional (Madrid, 1992) 241, no. 841; and F. Álvarez-Ossorio, Catalogo de los exvotos de bronce, ibericos, Museo Arqueologico Nacional (Madrid, 1941) nos. 922-23, pl. 85. Compare also R. Lantier, Bronzes votifs ibériques (Paris, 1935) no. 159, pl. 13.
2. See F. Álvarez-Ossorio, Bronces ibéricos o hispánicos del Museo Arqueológico Nacional (Madrid, 1935) 20-27; id. 1941 (supra 1); L. Prados Torreira, “Los exvotos anatomicos del santuario iberico de Collado de los Jardines (Sta. Elena, Jaén),” Trabajos de prehistoria 48 (1991): 313-32; ead. 1992 (supra 1); ead., “Los santuarios ibéricos: Apuntes para el desarrollo de una arqueología del culto,” Trabajos de prehistoria 51.1 (1994): 127-40; and G. Nicolini et al., El santuario ibérico de Castellar, Jaén: Intervenciones arqueológicas 1966-1991 (Seville, 2004) 160-64.
3. For discussions of the statuettes’ poses and gestures, see G. Nicolini, “Gestes et attitudes cultuels des figurines de bronze ibériques,” Mélanges de la Casa de Velázquez 4 (1968): 27-50; and C. Rueda Galán, “La mujer sacralizada: La presencia de las mujeres en los santuarios (lectura desde los exvotos de bronce iberos),” Complutum 18 (2007): 227-35.
4. See, for example, 1933.134.
Aaron Paul and Lisa M. Anderson
