A SYRIAN COPPER GODDESS

CIRCA EARLY 2ND MILLENNIUM B.C.

Details

A SYRIAN COPPER GODDESS
CIRCA EARLY 2ND MILLENNIUM B.C.
Depicted standing with her feet together, wearing a tightly-fitted sheath with hatched decorative bands along her sides, the skirt belted with hatched ties along the apron, with three patterned horizontal bands, one at the middle and two toward the hem, dentils along the hem, adorned with a thick double-cord necklace that dips at the back, with three drop-shaped pendants, each centered by a raised disk, her conical headdress with tiered horns, her face with wide protruding lips, the bridge of her broad nose bifurcating into the brow, with thickly-lidded, recessed almond-shaped eyes, likely once inlaid, a rectangular element hanging at the back of her head, both arms bent acutely before her, her right hand clenched around a now-missing attribute, her left hand cupped, a tenon below the feet for insertion
9¼ in. (23.5 cm.) high

Provenance

English Private Collection, 1970s.

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Lot Essay

This figure relates in scale and physical characteristics to Middle Bronze Age female figures from Ugarit. See, for example, nos. 20-21, pp. 46-47 in Aruz, Benzel and Evans, eds., Beyond Babylon, Art, Trade, and Diplomacy in the Second Millennium B.C. The grooves offsetting the shoulders may indicate that a portion of this figure was originally overlaid in gold or silver sheet. For a related male figure see Christie's, New York, 3 June 2009, lot 36.

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