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Details
LOT 0100
Etruscan Votive Bronze Hand
CIRCA 7TH-6TH CENTURY B.C.
4 5/8 in. (187 grams total, 11.8 cm high including stand).
Modelled in the half-round with D-section fingers, portion of cuff behind the thumb; mounted on a custom-made display stand.
Provenance
Acquired on the German art market, before 1992; thence by descent.
This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no.13191-249245.
Literature
Cf. a similar votive hand in Christie's, Antiquities: Including Ancient Engraved Gems. Formerly in the G.Sangiorgi Collection Part IV, London, 2022, 7th December, lot.33.
Footnotes
Votive offerings gained increasing popularity throughout Etruria, southern Latium and later northern Campania from the 7th century B.C. onwards. Most gods were thought to possess the power to heal, and the sick flocked to their sanctuaries for a cure or to pray for future health. Usually, these dedications depicted the parts of the human anatomy that needed healing. The area of Vulci offered many graves in which pairs of hands cut from a sheet of bronze, rolled up at the base to form the wrist, have been found.
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