The female seated on a chair with arm-supports at the sides, wearing a long robe with ruched panel to the chest and pleated sleeves, the hair drawn up into a transverse band above the brow, surmounted by a tiara; hands across the waist holding an infant with head erect; mounted on a custom-made stand; repaired. [No Reserve]

PROVENANCE:
From a collection acquired on the UK art market from various auction houses and collections mostly before 2000.
From an important Cambridgeshire estate; thence by descent.

LITERATURE:
Cf. Museum of fine Arts of Boston, Art of Ancient Cyprus, Boston, 1972, fig.44 (for a similar goddess seated with baby).

FOOTNOTES:
The statuette probably represents the goddess of fertility, originally imported from Crete in the 11th century B.C. but whose iconography survived in Cyprus until the 5th century B.C. The tiara is a characteristic attribute of this divinity, related to the Greek Demeter. The statue is probably a votive statue propitiatory for births.