On view
Ancient Mediterranean Art
Head of a woman or priestess,
ca. 600 BCE
Cypriote
Cypro-Archaic II
2013-4
More Context
Didactics
This clay head was broken from a statue that stood in a sanctuary at Idalion, on the island of Cyprus. Discovered in the nineteenth century, it was published in Paris in 1908. The sculpture served as a votive offering, a tangible prayer to a deity—probably Aphrodite, whose worship was widespread on Cyprus, where she was associated with the Semitic goddess Ishtar/Astarte. The veiled woman, possibly a priestess, wears a beaded choker, ear ornaments, and a garlanded diadem, on which traces of paint survive. With a round face and formidable nose, she represents a feminine ideal familiar from contemporary Near Eastern art.
Information
Title
Head of a woman or priestess
Dates
ca. 600 BCE
Medium
Terracotta
Dimensions
18.4 x 19 x 18.4 cm (7 1/4 x 7 1/2 x 7 1/4 in.)
with mount: 26.7 x 19 x 18.4 cm (10 1/2 x 7 1/2 x 7 1/4 in.)
Credit Line
Museum purchase, Carl Otto von Kienbusch Jr. Memorial Collection Fund by exchange, and the Classical Purchase Fund, in honor of William A. P. Childs, Professor of Art and Archaeology, Emeritus
Object Number
2013-4
Place Made
Cyprus, Indalion
Culture
Period
Type
Materials
By 1906 with Louis de Clercq, Paris; in the 1960s acquired from the de Clercq estate by Nicholas Koutoulakis, Geneva; by 2010 purchased by Rupert Wace, London, from Daphne Zimmermann-Koutoulakis and Emmanuel Koutoulakis, Geneva; acquired by the Museum in 2013
- Louis de Clercq, Joachim Menant and André de Ridder, Collection de Clercq: catalogue méthodique et raisonné: antiquités assyriennes, cylindres orientaux, cachets, briques, bronzes, bas-reliefs, etc., (Paris: Académie des inscriptions & belles-lettres; E. Leroux, 1888-)., Vol. 5: no. 129 (illus.)
- Rupert Wace Ancient Art 13, (London: Rupert Wace Ancient Art, 2013)., no. 30 (illus.)
- "Acquisitions of the Princeton University Art Museum 2013," Record of the Princeton University Art Museum 73 (2014): p. 37-64., p. 56, p. 57 (illus.)
