Bust of a Woman : Ariadne at The Louvre, Paris by Scan The World

Description

This bust of a woman was long overlooked. It was found in Falerii, about 50 kilometers from Rome, and has recently recognized as being a masterpiece of Etruscan terra-cotta sculpture. Produced in the early third century BC, it falls within the Greek sculptural tradition of the classical period. The young woman, who may be Ariadne, is veiled and crowned with vine branches and leaves and probably belonged to a cult group depicting the wedding of Dionysos. Having been long overlooked, this terra-cotta bust of a woman was recently connected with a fragmentary Etruscan statue discovered in 1829 at the site of Falerii, north of Rome. The work was part of the Marquis Campana's collection until 1861, when it was bought by the French state; it came to the Louvre two years later. The statue is in several parts and was modeled by hand. It retains traces of polychrome painting: blue, yellow, and purple on the clothing, pink on the face, and brown on the hair. The extraordinary skill with which it was made marks this work out as a masterpiece of Etruscan terra-cotta sculpture. This statue is an original work made in Falerii in the first decades of the third century BC, during the early Hellenistic period. It is nevertheless imbued with a certain classicism inspired by Greek sculpture of the fourth century BC. The features of the face, which is a regular oval, and the hairstyle, with wavy locks arranged on either side of a triangular forehead, are inspired by the work of Praxiteles or his…