The Cleveland Museum of Art (spacer)
Special Exhibitions
(spacer) (separator) (spacer) (spacer)
Magna Graecia
(spacer)
(spacer)
  Magna Graecia: Greek Art From South Italy and Sicily > About the Exhibition > Taranto > Female Half-Figure Mold (about 350-300 BC)
 
 
Female Half-Figure Mold (about 350-300 BC)
Taranto
Terracotta
Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Taranto, inv. 151778
[Cat. no. 12]


Female Half-Figure Mold (about 350-300 BC)

This mold was employed in one of the many Tarantine workshops supplying terracottas for use in religious rituals. The mold created a finished terracotta of the bust of a female offering-bearer, a worshipper who presented gifts to a divinity. She would have held a deep cup (skyphos) and a basket of fruit. Such a reference to the abundance of nature may relate to the cult of Demeter, the goddess responsible for the fertility of the earth.

Page 5 of 7 | On the next page: Tarantine Jewelry