Etruscan Solid Bronze Handle of a Patera in Form of a Goddess

Culture: Etruscan

Period: 350-300 B.C.

Material: Bronze

Dimensions: 18.5 cm high

Price: Sold

Ref: 4135

Provenance: Belgian collection van der Aa, acquired from a Dutch collection, 1960s. Thence Hirsch auction Munich 2016. Last in the New York art market.

Condition: The statuette may have had separately worked out wings attached to the back, which are missing today. Otherwise intact and of wonderful quality.

Description: Magnificent solid bronze depiction of a standing goddess in a long, pleated peplos. She stands with her weight on her right leg and the left one is slightly bent forward. The peplos with a long cover is pinned by two brooches on the shoulders. The goddess, possibly one of the rare representations of a clothed Lasa (companion of the goddess of love Turan), holds a large alabastron in her left hand. The right one leads her to her lavishly piled hair, on which sits a bronze attachment. This attachment shows the face of a Gorgon on the reverse and was fixed on a patera. The two rosettes on the left and right above the head of the goddess formed the opposite end. The statuette stands on its round original base, which is decorated on the outside with a dot and tongue pattern. See for the type of an unclothed Lasa with similar posture, base and alabastron the example in the J. Paul Getty Museum with the object number 96.AC.34. Mounted.