Wheel-made and hollow, the woman carries on her head a two-handled jar that she steadies with raised hands. There is no hole between jar and head. The piece is one of approximately fifteen comparable representations. We do not know if they had special significance.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Terracotta woman carrying a jar
Period:Cypro-Archaic I
Date:ca. 750–600 BCE
Culture:Cypriot
Medium:Terracotta; wheel-made and hand-made
Dimensions:H. 7 3/16 in. (18.3 cm)
Classification:Terracottas
Credit Line:The Cesnola Collection, Purchased by subscription, 1874–76
Accession Number:74.51.1617
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. XX.154, 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. 76, p. 7, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Myres, John L. 1914. Handbook of the Cesnola Collection of Antiquities from Cyprus. no. 2033, p. 339, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1953. Handbook of the Greek Collection. p. 173, pl. 13j, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Himmelmann, Nikolaus. 1968. Über einige gegenständliche Bedeutungsmöglichkeiten des frühgriechischen Ornaments. Abhandlungen der Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaftlichen Klasse., Vol. 7. p. 324, Mainz: Verlag der K.B. Akademie der Wissenschaften.
Sophocleous, Sophocles. 1985. ""Atlas des représentations chypro-archaiques des divinités." Master's Diss.." Master's Diss. no. 5, p. 92. Paul Aströms Förlag.
Karageorghis, Vassos. 1998. The Coroplastic Art of Ancient Cyprus: The Cypro-archaic period small female figurines, Vol. 5(A). no. I(iii)10, p. 19, pl. XIII.1, Nicosia: Foundation Anastasios G. Leventis.
Barnes, Lorna and Ellen Salzman. 1998. "Preliminary Investigations of Surface Decoration on a Group of Ancient Terracottas from Cyprus." Glass, Ceramics and Related Materials : ICOM Committee for Conservation Glass, Ceramics, and Related Materials Working Group, & Institute of Arts and Design Department of Conservation Studies, Alice B. Paterakis, ed. p. 79, Vantaa, Finland: EVTEK Institute of Art and Design, Dept. of Conservation Studies.
Karageorghis, Vassos, Joan Mertens, and Marice E. Rose. 2000. Ancient Art from Cyprus: The Cesnola Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. no. 263, pp. 162–63, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Karageorghis, Vassos, Gloria Merker, and Joan R. Mertens. 2016. The Cesnola Collection of Cypriot Art : Terracottas. no. 159, pp. 94–95, 258–59, Online Publication, [CD-Rom 2004], New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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The Museum's collection of Greek and Roman art comprises more than 30,000 works ranging in date from the Neolithic period to the time of the Roman emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity in A.D. 312.
