Tanagra-style female figure, Greece, circa 4th century BC.
Terracotta.
Provenance: Daaf De haan 1984 Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Acquired by Cree Holt 2005 Liverpool, UK. Julie Lemaire acquired by the previous owner in 2012 Brussels, Belgium; Swiss Private Collection, Lugano, 2022.
In good condition.
Measurements: 18 cm.
At the end of the 4th century BC, a style of clay modelling developed in the city of the same name, known as the 'Tanagra style'. In these figures the classical composition of the body disappears. One leg is placed slightly to one side, either backwards or forwards. The arms no longer hang rigidly at the side of the body, as in the archaic or classical period, but rest on the belly, chest or back, or rest on the hip. They rarely wear other attributes and instead carry their arms and hands wrapped in the pommel, which may also cover the head and even almost completely conceal the face. In addition to the standing woman as the main motif, seated or crouching women, standing or seated children or youths, and whole groups of people are the most frequent motifs. There are often figures holding masks or musical instruments in their hands, grotesque figures or actors. With the exception of Aphrodite and Eros, gods are rare.
Tanagra, also called Tanagraois, was a city in Boeotia, near the border with Attica, in a territory called Pemandride, which produced the best wine in Boeotia. Perched high up, with its temples separated from the houses, it had an important necropolis. Of particular note are the terracotta human figures known as 'tanagrines', fashionable in the ancient Greek world from the end of the 4th century BC to the end of the 3rd century BC, found mainly in Hellenistic tombs, but also in temples, and found in large quantities from about the last third of the 19th century onwards. They were part of the trousseaux, and generally belonged to the Attic school of sculpture, with a strong influence of the school of Praxiteles (as can be seen in the present case from the curve formed by the figure at the hips, an "invention" of this sculptor and therefore known as the "Praxitelian curve"), with faces with gentle expressions and a certain languid air, and probably made in Athenian workshops in many cases. Similar discoveries have been made in Myrina (present-day Turkey), Cyrene (Italy) and Alexandria (Egypt).