Magna Graecia, Apulia, Canosan Hellenistic Period, ca. 3rd century BCE. A pretty mold-made ceramic figure of a woman, shown standing, draped in a pink himation that covers one breast and shoulder. Her hair is piled atop her head in a bun-like coiffure. Her face is small and delicate, with evidence remaining for red lips, black eyes, and white skin. The pigment on this example is very nicely preserved. Canosa, or Canosion as it was known then, was a major center of the ceramics and pottery trade when it was a Greek polis. It produced truly unique pottery, completely different in decoration style (although not in shape) from earlier and neighboring traditions. The clay is buff, with the decoration applied directly to it without the use of slip. Size: 2.85" W x 7.75" H (7.2 cm x 19.7 cm)

Female figures like this one played an interesting role in Canosan funerary practices. They were placed into Canosan tombs as replacements for large red-figure kraters from the century before, but first, mourners carried them in funerary processions and kept them present while they carried out rituals at the tomb. Although almost all of the statues known from Canosan tombs are women, they seem to represent goddesses or mourners, rather than the gender of the deceased - in this society, young women played a major role as mourners. The Canosans, like other members of Classical society, believed that the spirits of the dead remained at the tomb and watched over the living. Canosan tombs were re-opened frequently to bury members of the same lineage, and so these figures were probably reused as well, maintaining the connection between the living and the dead.

Provenance: private Healy collection, Studio City, California, USA, acquired over the last twenty years

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#137550

The back of the piece has been expertly restored at its center, with the repair being nearly invisible. Some small surface cracks along the mold line, notably at the hair. Nice deposits and remaining pigment.