Archaic II
Terracotta female musician
Musicians appear frequently among Cypriot limestone and terracotta sculptures. In real life, one of their major functions was to accompany dancers, ritual and secular. One of the figures plays a tambourine, the other probably a triangle. The style of the tambourine player is associated with a sanctuary at Kamelarga in Larnaca; that of the other musician probably also. H. 6 3/4 in. (17.2 cm)
Date
600 - 480 BC
Accession No.
74.51.1679
Collection
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Provenance
References
- Cesnola, Luigi Palma di. 1894. A Descriptive Atlas of the Cesnola Collection of Cypriote Antiquities in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Vol. 2. pl. VI.43, Boston: James R. Osgood and Company.Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1895. The Terracottas and Pottery of the Cesnola Collection of Cypriote Antiquities in Halls 4 and 15. no. 282, p. 25, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.Myres, John L. 1914. Handbook of the Cesnola Collection of Antiquities from Cyprus. no. 2030, p. 339, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.Richter, Gisela M. A., Grace Crowfoot, and Donald Benjamin Harden. 1956. "Part I: Ceramics from c. 700 B.C. to the Fall of the Roman Empire." A History of Technology: The Mediterranean Civilizations and the Middle Ages, c. 700 B.C. to c. A.D. 1500, Vol. 2, Charles Singer, Eric John Holmyard, Alfred Rupert Hall, and Trevor Williams, eds. p. 276-77, fig. 262, Oxford: Clarendon Press.Karageorghis, Jacqueline. 1977. La grande déesse de Chypre et son culte à travers l'iconographie de l'époque néolithique au VIème s.a.C.. p. 205, Lyon: Maison de l'Orient.1991. "Of Drums and Damsels: Women's Performance in Ancient Israel." Biblical Archaeologist, 54(1). p. 20.Karageorghis, Vassos. 1998. The Coroplastic Art of Ancient Cyprus: The Cypro-archaic period small female figurines, Vol. 5(A). no. 31, p. 71, pl. XLIX.3, Nicosia: Foundation Anastasios G. Leventis.Karageorghis, Vassos, Joan Mertens, and Marice E. Rose. 2000. Ancient Art from Cyprus: The Cesnola Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. no. 232, p. 149, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.Karageorghis, Vassos, Gloria Merker, and Joan R. Mertens. 2016. The Cesnola Collection of Cypriot Art : Terracottas. no. 191, pp. 113, 258-59, Online Publication, [CD-Rom 2004], New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.