LOT 0223

Phoenician Bronze Seated Figure Holding an Offering Cup

CIRCA 6TH CENTURY B.C.

4 3/8 in. (301 grams total, 11 cm including stand).

Modelled in the round with tight-fitting robe and carefully detailed tiered hairstyle; right hand raised to support a chalice; peg beneath the feet; mounted on a custom-made display stand. [No Reserve]

Acquired on the French art market.
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.

Cf. Moscati, S., I Fenici, p.229, for a statuette in similar style.

Iberian statuettes from 6th century B.C. were produced under the influence of Greeks and Phoenicians. Small votive offerings of priests, priestesses, and deities in bronze, were found everywhere in Spain. The body of these figurines is often reduced to a rectangular plaque, but the head, as in all these types, is of plastic work, a process which reminds the prehistoric terracottas from the Argive Heraeum and elsewhere. The curve of the nose, which gives the face a Semitic appearance, is not accidental, and underlines the Phoenician influence.