Published Catalogue Text: Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes at the Harvard Art Museums
This female orant wears a tall, curved, and uncovered headdress (1). A band is visible below the headdress on the front, and the back of the headdress is flat and featureless. At ear-level on each side of her head is a rounded prominence, perhaps a smaller version of a tymphanum (2). Her face is simple: her eyes are raised ovals, her nose is triangular, and her mouth is indicated by a thin line above a narrow chin. Her neck is round and proportionate, connecting to her rounded shoulders and torso. Her upper arms are held pressed against her torso with grooves indicating the separation of the limbs. Her forearms are disproportionately short, while her hands are disproportionately large. She raises her forearms and holds her hands outward, palm up, in a gesture of adoration or prayer. Separate fingers are indicated, and the tips of the fingers on the right hand are missing. She wears a long dress with a V-neck in the front and back. The dress has short sleeves and is undecorated; it is bound at her narrow waist by a wide belt (3). Below the belt the hips curve outward sharply, and her lower body tapers before flaring out again just above the ankles. The small feet are a solid block with some light separation of the heels and front.
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 (4). Many of the statuettes depict individuals, some of whom are represented in poses of prayer or offering (5). Some are very abstract and schematically rendered, while others wear identifiable contemporary clothing, as this example does. In spite of the similarity of the votives, there is nothing to indicate that the intention behind each offering was the same. This example is most likely from the cave sanctuary of Collado de los Jardines near Santa Elena, Jaén. It was given to Harvard in 1933 by the Republic of Spain in exchange for the cover of the eleventh-century sarcophagus of Alfonso Ansúrez from Sahagún, León, which was then in the collection of the Fogg Art Museum (6).
NOTES:
1. Compare L. Prados Torreira, Exvotos ibericos de bronce del Museo Arqueologico Nacional (Madrid, 1992) 218-19, nos. 558-63 and 270, no. 1167; and R. Lantier, Bronzes votifs ibériques (Paris, 1935) no. 216, pl. 15.
2. The first-century BCE geographer Strabo describes the large disc-like decorations as “drums” (tymphanum) that spiral outward, increasing in height and width, covering part of the head down to the ears. (Strabo, 3.4.17). He mentions that some of the women twist their hair around a rod and cover it in a black veil, which seems to correspond to the pointed headdresses seen on this statuette and 1978.507. Compare the large and elaborate wheel-like discs on the side of the head and pointed headdress of the stone bust known as the Lady of Elche (Museo Arqueológico Nacional, Madrid, inv. no. 1971/10/1) with these details on the two Harvard statuettes. See also the Iberian stone heads from sanctuary at Cerro de los Santos with high pointed headdresses similar to Harvard’s bronzes in the Museo de Albacete, inv. nos. DE07515 and CE04302; and the Museo Arqueológico Nacional, Madrid, inv. nos. 3513 and 7510. For a comparison of bronze votives from Despeñaperros and stone sculptures, see H. Sandars, “Pre-Roman Bronze Votive Offerings from Despeñaperros, in Sierra Morena, Spain,” Archaeologia, or Miscellaneous Tracts Relating to Antiquity 10 (1906) 69-92.
3. An epitome describing the Iberians preserved from Nicholas of Damascus’ universal history notes that the Iberians had a belt of a certain size, and it was considered unseemly if anyone could not fit in it; see Nicolai Damasceni Historiarum excerpta et fragmenta quae supersunt Graece (Lipsiae/Leipzig, 1804) 142-45 “Iberi/Ιβηροι.” Strabo has a longer description of this custom. He remarks that another geographer, Ephorus, extended the boundaries of the Celts too far and included the Iberians, and then he notes that these people “take great care not to become too fat or big-bellied, and that if any young man exceeds the measure of a certain girdle, he is punished” (Strabo, 4.4.6). Despite the confusion about whether this anecdote refers to the Celts or the Iberians, this detail appears to correspond to the account of Nicholas and is illustrated by the attire of statuettes like this one.
4. See F. Álvarez-Ossorio, Bronces ibéricos o hispánicos del Museo Arqueológico Nacional (Madrid, 1935) 20-27; id., Catálogo de los exvotos de bronce ibéricos (Madrid, 1941); 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.
5. 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.
6. See “Collections and Critiques,” The Harvard Crimson, Dec. 12, 1935; and Á. Franco, “Arte medieval leonés fuera de España,” in La dispersión de objetos de arte fuera de España en los siglos XIX y XX, eds. F. Pérez Mulet and I. Socias Batet (Barcelona, 2011) 93-132, esp. 113-16.
Lisa M. Anderson
