Plaque with a Woman

325–200 B.C.

Medium

Terracotta with white slip and polychromy (red, black)

Dimensions

16.4 × 5.9 cm

Status

In Museum Collection

Collect24 Art ID

C24-228360

The female figure is shown frontally, standing on a curved base marked by a fillet in relief and two painted, horizontal red lines. She places her weight on the left leg; the right leg is bent. She gathers folds of drapery in her right hand and in her left, she holds up a bowl. She wears a chiton gathered by a belt beneath the breasts, and on her left side a himation drapes down in broad folds. The features of her oval face are sketchily defined; the hair is parted over the forehead and gathered up. The statuette, made from a worn mold, must originally have been painted with bright colors. The relief could depict the deified maiden Polyboia, who is sometimes portrayed with a phiale mesomphalos, a bowl used in rituals, among other attributes.