Canosan funerary figure
Terracotta, mineral based pigment
Apulia, probably Canosa
Hellenistic, 350-250 BCE
Standing female figure clad in full length chiton with the remnants of a bacchanalian wreath on her head; likely indicating she’s a maenad. Such southern Italic figures were fired before pigments had been applied making them extremely scriptable to fading/damage. This figure has a large quantity of her original polychromatic decoration intact. Black acrylic base.
Provenance: Private London collection formed in the 1970s
Similar example on display at the Museum of Mediterranean Antiquities, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia, November 2005 – April 2008.