Published Catalogue Text: Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes at the Harvard Art Museums
This female statuette is covered from head to toe in a long cloak, open only at the front of the torso. She wears a high curved headdress under the cloak (1). Her facial features are sharp and in high relief. Prominent brows lead to a thin triangular nose. Her eyes are two very small raised circles, and the mouth is a small, incised line. Her face is tilted upward slightly, with the round chin jutting out. Her body is very narrow and flat, almost herm-like in execution, except for details of the cloak and arms on the front. The cloak is closed at the neck but held open by the small, schematic tabs that indicate arms and hands. It closes again at the pelvis, following the line of the iliac crest. The edges of the cloak are modeled; there is a clear separation of the edges down the front. The joined feet form a block; there is no indication of separation. The back of the figure is featureless, except for the molded hem of the cloak, and it is mostly flat, with a rounded area at the back of the skull and one at the buttocks.
Thousands of small, anthropomorphic copper alloy statuettes and anatomical votives have been recovered from remote sanctuary sites in south-central Spain, particularly Collado de los Jardines and Castellar de Santisteban, but it is not certain to which god or gods they were dedicated (2). Many of the statuettes depict individuals, some of whom are represented in poses of prayer or offering (3). Some are very abstract and schematically rendered, while others wear identifiable contemporary clothing (4). In spite of the similarity of the votives, there is nothing to indicate that the intention behind each offering was the same. This example is most likely from the cave sanctuary of Collado de los Jardines near Santa Elena, Jaén. It was given to Harvard in 1933 by the Republic of Spain in exchange for the cover of the eleventh-century sarcophagus of Alfonso Ansúrez from Sahagún, León, which was then in the collection of the Fogg Art Museum (5).
NOTES:
1. Compare L. Prados Torreira, Exvotos ibericos de bronce del Museo Arqueologico Nacional (Madrid, 1992) 231-32 and 245, nos. 718-22 and 891-92. Compare also R. Lantier, Bronzes votifs ibériques (Paris, 1935) no. 236 and 248-49, pls. 18-19. 19. More naturalistic representations of women wearing enveloping cloaks with only their hands and faces exposed can be seen in ibid., nos. 246 and 251-252, pls. 19-20.
2. See F. Álvarez-Ossorio, Bronces ibéricos o hispánicos del Museo Arqueológico Nacional (Madrid, 1935) 20-27; id., Catálogo de los exvotos de bronce ibéricos (Madrid, 1941); L. Prados Torreira, “Los exvotos anatomicos del santuario iberico de Collado de los Jardines (Sta. Elena, Jaén),” Trabajos de prehistoria 48 (1991): 313-32; ead. 1992 (supra 1); ead., “Los santuarios ibéricos: Apuntes para el desarrollo de una arqueología del culto,” Trabajos de prehistoria 51.1 (1994): 127-40; and G. Nicolini et al., El santuario ibérico de Castellar, Jaén: Intervenciones arqueológicas 1966-1991 (Seville, 2004).
3. For discussions of the statuettes’ poses and gestures, see G. Nicolini, “Gestes et attitudes cultuels des figurines de bronze ibériques,” Mélanges de la Casa de Velázquez 4 (1968): 27-50; and C. Rueda Galán, “La mujer sacralizada: La presencia de las mujeres en los santuarios (lectura desde los exvotos de bronce iberos),” Complutum 18 (2007): 227-35.
4. See, for example, 1933.134.
5. See “Collections and Critiques,” The Harvard Crimson, Dec. 12, 1935; and Á. Franco, “Arte medieval leonés fuera de España,” in La dispersión de objetos de arte fuera de España en los siglos XIX y XX, eds. F. Pérez Mulet and I. Socias Batet (Barcelona, 2011) 93-132, esp. 113-16.
Lisa M. Anderson
