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A terracotta sculpture of an abstracted figure standing under an arched form. Two animal heads with long antlers are on each side of the figure.

A mottled red and white terracotta sculpture of an abstracted figure standing under an arched form in front of a grey background. Two animal heads with long antlers are on each side of the figure. The figure has no legs, a wide torso, short but large hands, a small face, and a flat shape above the head.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
2012.1.88
Title
Terracotta Group of the Ephesian Artemis
Classification
Sculpture
Work Type
sculpture, statuette
Date
2nd century CE
Period
Roman Imperial period, Middle
Culture
Roman
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/191777

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Terracotta
Technique
Molded
Dimensions
23.5 x 11.5 x 11 cm (9 1/4 x 4 1/2 x 4 5/16 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
{Hesperia Art, Philadelphia, PA] (by 1963), sold; to the Alice Corinne McDaniel Collection, Department of the Classics, Harvard University (1963-2012), transfer; to the Harvard Art Museums 2012.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Transfer from the Alice Corinne McDaniel Collection, Department of the Classics, Harvard University
Accession Year
2012
Object Number
2012.1.88
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
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Descriptions

Description
This terracotta statuette group is a representation of the Artemis of Ephesos. The goddess stands frontally, arms held out from her sides. She wears a high headdress (kalathos), and behind her head is a billowing veil or nimbus; her garment is long and close fitting, covered in the central section by a cluster of globular objects generally identified as breasts. The lower part of the garment, although now very worn, may have had panels with raised depictions of animals in imitation of the cult statues of the goddess.

On either side of the goddess stands a stag. The stags are rather cursorily modeled; their antlers are depicted almost like a large feather above the head, with a row of incised lines on either side of a central incision. The goddess and animals are enclosed in a round-topped niche, standing on a rectangular base with molding depicted on the top and bottom, possibly in imitation of the settings of larger statues of the goddess. The style of the whole is fairly simple and schematic and the surface is partly worn. The head of one of the stags was broken and mended.

Traces of white slip and black paint remain. The different sections of the statuette group were made separately and assembled before firing.
Commentary
The form, attributes, and iconography of Artemis as she was worshipped in Ephesos is unusual in the context of the classical Graeco-Roman Artemis/Diana, who is otherwise represented as a virgin huntress. At Ephesos, syncretism associated the Greek Artemis with the iconography and aspects of an earlier deity who had a clear connection with fertility. Other large- and small-scale representations of Ephesian Artemis are known in marble, bronze, and terracotta, but the niche surrounding the goddess and stags is perhaps unique to this object. The temple of Artemis at Ephesos was acknowledged in antiquity as one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

Publication History

  • Robert Randolf Coleman, "A Roman Terracotta Figurine of the Ephesian Artemis in the McDaniel Collection", Harvard Studies in Classical Philology (Cambridge, MA, 1965), 70, pp. 111-115
  • John Crawford, Sidney Goldstein, George M. A. Hanfmann, John Kroll, Judith Lerner, Miranda Marvin, Charlotte Moore, and Duane Roller, Objects of Ancient Daily Life. A Catalogue of the Alice Corinne McDaniel Collection Belonging to the Department of the Classics, Harvard University, ed. Jane Waldbaum, Department of the Classics (unpublished manuscript, 1970), T2, p. 33-34 [D. W. Roller]

Exhibition History

  • Roman Gallery Installation (long-term), Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 09/16/1999 - 01/20/2008
  • 32Q: 3440 Middle East, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 06/15/2023 - 09/21/2023
  • 32Q: 3620 University Study Gallery, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 02/13/2015

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu