Etruscan female bust from Cerveteri 300-250 BCE

March 09, 2020

Etruscan female bust from Cerveteri 300-250 BCE

"The bust is not among the votive terracotta produced in series with matrices, but rather constitutes an original work modeled directly by a talented artist for a commission of rank. It represents a relatively young woman with well-defined physiognomic characters and a clear portraitist intent. The surface of the face and neck is very smooth, to make the complexion more radiant. The wrinkles defined on the neck and under the chin mark the passage of time on a face more absorbed than ideally detached.

The lion's head earrings, reproducing gold specimens widespread in the Etruscan and Magno-Greek area (about 325-200 BC) and the fluffy hair inspired by the portraits of Alexander the Great allow us to date it to early Hellenism.

Middle-Italian portraiture is partly indebted to the formal conquests of Greek art, which in early Hellenism elaborated the first dynastic portraits. The portrait constitutes a well-attended genre in Italic culture, adopted both in the votive and funerary ambit, which will be made by the Roman aristocracies due to the importance attached to the individual image. The genre will pass through Roman art in Western figurative culture."

-taken from museivaticani.va link below