Published Catalogue Text: Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes at the Harvard Art Museums
This bull figurine is extremely worn, and no surface detail is visible. The body is schematized and flattened. The hind legs are straight but broken, and the forelegs are missing. The bull stands with its head raised. Its horns are broken. The tail, connected to the body, hangs straight down. Behind the horns, two protrusions with broken ends appear on the bull’s neck.
The function of the broken protrusions behind the horns of 1920.44.259 is difficult to ascertain; bull figurine 1920.44.255 does not have similar projections. Although no surface detail remains on figure 1920.44.259, its schematic style is similar enough to 1920.44.255 to suggest a common origin.
Many varieties of votive animals are known, including horses, cattle, sheep, pigs, bulls, and oxen. The production of ox or bull figurines appears to have been a phenomenon among rural Etruscan workshops. The fact that the cast was filed by hand typically produced a schematized, flattened form, finished at the edge. The stylized forms have notches or grooves for the face and fur, punched circles for the eyes, and small marks for the tail. A schematic style among these workshops is evident in the separated limbs, triangular head, and projected ears, horns, and tails.
Animal figurines of the sixth to fourth centuries BCE were offered as part of fertility rituals to insure the health of livestock. The burial of these bronzes in sanctuary deposits points not only to their symbolic importance but also to the mass-production of these items. Umbrian sanctuaries have been a source of large deposits of these votive objects (1).
NOTES:
1. For examples from the Umbrian sanctuary of Monte Acuto, see L. Bonfante and F. Roncalli, eds., Antichita dall’Umbria a New York, exh. cat. (Perugia, 1991) 221-25, nos. 4.35-4.50. See also M. T. Falconi Amorelli, ed., Todi preromana: Catalogo dei materiali conservati nel Museo Comunale di Todi (Todi, 1977) pl. 95.d-f.
Nicola Demonte
