STATUETTE VOTIVE PHÉNICIENNE Entre 600 et 400... Lot 36

STATUETTE VOTIVE PHÉNICIENNE Entre 600 et 400 avant J.C Matériau Terre cuite H. 43,8 cm PHOENICIAN VOTIVE FIGURE Circa: 600 BC to 400 BC Medium: Terracota Dimensions: 17.25'' high This imposing ceramic sculpture is a votive figure from the middle of the first millennium BC, and represents a deity in the Phoenician pantheon. It shows a goddess standing on an ornate double integral pedestal base, dressed in a long robe that covers the back of the ornate hair and stretches down to the ground. Her face has been eroded with t passage of time, but still retains the graceful lines of forehead, eyes and jawline. An eminence on her left arm suggests that she was originally depicted as carrying a child; her right hand is raised in benediction. Her upright stance and austere pose are reminiscent of the Archaic Period Greek statues which the Phoenicians inspired, and with which this piece is roughly contemporary. The back of the piece is almost completely plain, implying that it was always meant to be viewed from the front rather than in the round, which is appropriate for figures destined for shrines. The piece retains some calcareous concretions from its long interment in the Mediterranean. The Phoenicians were one of the most important civilisations of the ancient world, and flourished from around 1500 to 300 BC. Their world was centred on Northern Israel, Lebanon and Syria, while their sphere of conquest and influence extended throughout the Mediterranean and even beyond the Pillars of Hercules (the Straits of Gibraltar) and into the Mediterranean- Atlantic. Their power was due primarily to their mastery of seamanship - which they developed to a whole new level during their pre-eminence - and extremely well-organised administration which was strengthened by extensive use of the alphabet. Indeed, it was the Phoenicians who introduced the alphabet to the Greeks, who in turn passed it onto the rest of the Western World. They were essentially Canaanites, to whom they were ident