LOT 1686

Large Stone Age Pregnant Mother Goddess Idol

NEOLITHIC PERIOD, CIRCA 6TH-4TH MILLENNIUM B.P. OR LATER

6 1/4 in. (1.47 kg total, 16 cm including stand).

Modelled in the round as a figure of a pregnant woman sitting upright with emphasised breast and stomach; mounted on a custom-made stand. [No Reserve]

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.

Accompanied by an academic report by Dr Raffaele D’Amato.
This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no.12334-224207.
This lot has been cleared against the Art Loss Register database, and is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D’Amato.

Cf. Morris, D., The Art of Ancient Cyprus, Oxford, 1985, figs.107-109, p.119, for similar idols; Various, Idoles, Au commencement etait l’image, A la Reine Margot, 22 Novembre 1990-28 Fevrier 1991, Paris, 1990, fig. 11, for similar; also see Caldwell, Duncan, ‘The Use of Animals in Birth Protection Rituals and Possible Uses of Stone Figurines from the Central Sahel’ in African Arts, UCLA, 2015 Winter issue, vol.48, no.4, Nov., pp.14-25, figs.5, letters A (especially), J-O.

Most scholars consider these as symbols of the fertility cult and as evidence of the existence of a matriarchal society as a form of organisation of the earliest human society. The people of the Stone Age may have considered figures such as this to represent women and mothers with their life-giving powers, or as depictions of the ancestors.