CANOSINE VOTIVE STATUE Magna Grecia, Hellenistic Period, 4th-3rd century BC Exceptional terracotta sculpture depicting a delicate draped female figure, standing with the insistent weight on the right leg stretched while the left leg is flexed and slightly demoted, the arms are folded and the hands open. He wears a long pleated chiton and a himation draped over his shoulders and wrapped around the neck and waist covering both the shoulders and part of the arms. He wears pyramid earrings and a twisted diadem with ivy leaves, he has an elaborate "melon" hairstyle with central parting and two long ringlets that fall on his shoulders. He has a regular oval face, a straight nose, a fleshy mouth and a rounded chin. Vent hole on the back. Exceptional exemplary both for the unusual dimensions and for the refined workmanship. Ex Gorny & Mosch, Auction 22 January 2010, lot 221; formerly in a private collection, Belgium 1960-1980 This characteristic polychrome ceramic was created in the Canosine workshops which appeared in Puglia in the last decades of the fourth century BC. Production extended at least until the middle of the third century by replacing the red-figure one. The plastic vases and statuettes perfectly illustrate how the painters-coroplasts of Canosa proceeded to create new forms, that is, combining the technique of making the vases with that of the crockery. The polychrome decoration usually extends over a white slip with figures painted in cream, yellow, pink, red, violet, blue, black. The exclusive votive or funerary destination of these objects shines through their fragility, the frequent lack of background, the realization of the decoration with the tempera technique (and therefore with less resistant colors) and finally the application of very protruding plastic ornaments, characteristics that do not adapt well to daily use. The production of this type of statues was born in Attica in the 4th century BC and is best known for the specimens found in Tanagra which determined the current denomination. The tanagrine (similar statues produced in other ancient centers are also called by analogy) are characterized by the lively polychrome of the white and blue robes and by the dark red or golden color of the hairstyles. The influence of praxitelic models is very strong; the reference to the great sculpture is evident in the terracotta that repeat the motif of the well-known Praxitelic school statues called the Ercolanesi. They are a precious document of the female costume, the testimony of the taste and sensitivity of the Hellenistic period. Each figure is reproduced with admirable vivacity or imaginative variety of attitudes. Communication to the Archaeological Superintendence of Bologna Cod. 6/2015 CANOSAN TERRACOTTA FEMALE FIGURE Magna Graecia, Hellenistic Period, IV-III century BC A huge and outstanding terracotta statuette of a standing young female figure bears the weight of her body on her right leg. She wears a high-waisted chiton that drops in soft folds, emphasizing the pose, which is characterized by a turn of the hip, her hands opened. Her hair, parted into large clumps, in keeping with the so-called melon coiffure, is gathered into a low bun; on her head is a wreath of ivy leaves. Her oval face has a small, fleshy mouth and a prominent nose; she wears large pyramidal earrings. The mold-cast terracotta Tanagra figurines, produced from the later fourth century BC, were a specialty of the Boeotian town of Tanagra in Greece where many of them were found for the first time in 1860, but they were also produced in other ancient center such as Canosa. The majority of this terracotta figurines depict fashionable women or girls, elegantly wrapped in thin himathia (cloaks), and sometimes wearing broad-brimmed hats and holding wreaths or fans. Previously, in the fifth and fourth centuries BC, terracotta statuettes had been produced in Athens primarily for religious purposes, or as souvenirs of the theater. In contrast, the entirely new repertoire of Tanagra terracottas was based on an intimate examination of the personal world of mortal women and children, occasionally young men, and other characters, who are believed to have had their origins in the New Comedy of Menander. Cod. 6/2015 350-300 BC Height 40.5 cm