SculptureRoman2nd century CE

Terracotta Group of the Ephesian Artemis

2nd century CE

Description

This terracotta statuette group is a representation of the Artemis of Ephesos. The goddess stands frontally, arms held out from her sides. She wears a high headdress (kalathos), and behind her head is a billowing veil or nimbus; her garment is long and close fitting, covered in the central section by a cluster of globular objects generally identified as breasts. The lower part of the garment, although now very worn, may have had panels with raised depictions of animals in imitation of the cult statues of the goddess. On either side of the goddess stands a stag. The stags are rather cursorily modeled; their antlers are depicted almost like a large feather above the head, with a row of incised lines on either side of a central incision. The goddess and animals are enclosed in a round-topped niche, standing on a rectangular base with molding depicted on the top and bottom, possibly in imitation of the settings of larger statues of the goddess. The style of the whole is fairly simple and schematic and the surface is partly worn. The head of one of the stags was broken and mended. Traces of white slip and black paint remain. The different sections of the statuette group were made separately and assembled before firing.

Classification

Sculpture

Technique

Molded

Medium

Terracotta

Culture

Roman

Period

Roman Imperial period, Middle

Century

2nd century CE

Division

Asian and Mediterranean Art

Department

Department of Ancient and Byzantine Art & Numismatics

Dimensions

23.5 x 11.5 x 11 cm (9 1/4 x 4 1/2 x 4 5/16 in.)

Provenance

{Hesperia Art, Philadelphia, PA] (by 1963), sold; to the Alice Corinne McDaniel Collection, Department of the Classics, Harvard University (1963-2012), transfer; to the Harvard Art Museums 2012.