TARANTINE, CIRCA MID 4TH CENTURY B.C.

Details

A GREEK TERRACOTTA HEAD OF A BEARDED GOD
TARANTINE, CIRCA MID 4TH CENTURY B.C.
Lifesized, depicted with upswept locks rolled back over the tops of his ears and behind, voluted curls above, and pulled up from the nape of his neck, with a horizontal crease along his forehead, his almond-shaped eyes with thick contoured lids and sharp slightly-arching brows merging with the bridge of his long straight nose, its tip overhanging the downturned mustache that covers his entire upper lip, the fleshy lower lip protruding, the full beard comprising individual locks assembled into corkscrew curls, some traces of pigment preserved in the hair
10½ in. (26.7 cm.) high

Provenance

with André Emmerich, New York, 1981.
Hesperia Arts Auction, New York, 27 November 1990, lot 48.
with Royal-Athena Galleries, New York, 1991 (Art of the Ancient World, vol. VI, Part II, no. 55).

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Lot Essay

This head exemplifies the tradition of fine terracotta sculpture produced in the Greek colonies of South Italy, particularly in Taranto, during the late 5th-3rd centuries B.C. See, for example, the lifesized head of a goddess from the Museo Archeologico, Taranto, p. 376, cat. no. 284 in Caratelli, ed., The Western Greeks. As Rolley informs ("Sculpture in Magna Graecia" in Caratelli, ed., op. cit., p. 376.), the terracotta sculpture of the 4th century B.C. that was being produced in Tarentum was closely reflecting what was happening in Mainland Greece.

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