Statuette of a women breast-feeding a child
Statuette of a women breast-feeding a child
Statuette of a women breast-feeding a child
This statuette belongs to a significant series of figurines with similar characteristics originating from the Phoenician and Punic worlds. Generally dated to the 7th–6th centuries B.C., they may be standing or seated, holding a child or various attributes (musical instruments, a fan, ears of grain, etc.) or simply holding their breast or belly: in the latter case, they are often called dea gravida
6th century B.C., 7th century B.C.
H 12.7 cm
Product Description
The statuette was partially cast (head and torso); the arms and legs, the seat, and the child were made by hand and attached before firing. The square base, on which the woman rested her feet, has a hole in it (a vent to regulate the firing process).
The statuette depicts a subject that was very dear to ancient Near Eastern cultures: a mother nursing her child. The woman is seated on a large cylindrical seat and holds the baby, fully swaddled, on her spread-apart knees; the child would have been comfortably nestled in the crook of her mother’s left arm while feeding.
The woman has a triangular face and a small, pointed nose; her eyes and large ears were highlighted with reddish-brown paint; her necklace and perhaps her tiara were also painted. Her hair, which covers her head like a cap with wavy bangs, then falls over her shoulders in a flat mass, reflecting an Egyptian fashion.
There are other traces of coloring (the child’s body, the woman’s arms and legs), though it is no longer possible to determine precisely which details were originally depicted.
This statuette belongs to a significant series of figurines with similar characteristics originating from the Phoenician and Punic worlds. Generally dated to the 7th–6th centuries B.C., they may be standing or seated, holding a child or various attributes (musical instruments, a fan, ears of grain, etc.) or simply holding their breast or belly: in the latter case, they are often called dea gravida. A few statuettes of mothers holding a child in their arms are known, but the woman is normally depicted standing rather than seated on a throne.
Stylistically, especially in their overall forms and facial features, these images already show a certain Greek artistic influence.
It is reasonable to assume that such an artifact was an ex-voto offered by a Phoenician mother at a sanctuary as a token of gratitude for a birth or as a prayer for future motherhood.
