Lot 38A
Northern Europe, Celtic period (Iron Age), ca. 500 to 1 BCE. Hand carved from a single piece of creamy white hued stone, a skeletal visage with deep orbitals, delineated nasal bones, and a toothy grimace upon a long neck. The stylized face has an expression scholars of Celtic art describe as "blank" or "open". This ghost-like appearance is rooted in the cyclical understanding of life in which the dead were believed to play a major role in the world of the living. Comes with custom stand. Mesmerizing and quite rare! Size: 11.625" H (29.5 cm); 16.25" H (41.3 cm) on included custom stand.
The ghostlike appearance of this piece may be related to rituals associated with Samhain. Samhain was a Celtic celebration of the harvest, when cattle were slaughtered and salted in preparation for winter, and bones were burned (bone fires which gave rise to the concept of bonfires). The macabre side of Samhain developed, because it was believed that the restless dead were actually free to roam about. For this reason, a practice arose in which the living wore masks so that harmful spirits would not recognize them. This custom later evolved into the practices of modern-day Halloween.
Celtic art from this period is often composed of abstract forms that are rich in hidden meanings that we puzzle over today. The Celtic world covered a huge geographic area in western and northern Europe, but had a unified artistic style. Archaeologist Barry Cunliffe has written about how these disparate communities used travel by ship to cover vast distances and how sharing iconography like this face created a common cultural background. It is also very interesting to realize that Celtic art of this style coexisted in Europe at the same time as Classical Greece's increasingly realistic sculpture and painting.
Provenance: private New Jersey USA collection, acquired over twenty years ago
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#121544
- Condition: Losses to lower end and left side of tooth line as shown. Surface nicks and abrasions here and there. Still remarkable and rare from the Celtic period.
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