Description:

Ancient Greece, Taranto, ca. 4th century BCE. A striking head-turner of an antefix depicting Io - the goddess/nymph with cow horns, presenting a beautiful face with delicate features including almond-shaped eyes, full lips and rounded chin. She dons lovely drop earrings and is crowned with a wavy coiffure. The nymph Io was a priestess of Hera, who Zeus took as a lover. In a bid to protect her from Hera's wild jealousy, he changed her into a beautiful white heifer. Size: 7.75" W x 7.375" H (19.7 cm x 18.7 cm); 10.25" H (26 cm) on included custom stand.

Roof tiles that ran along the eaves of ancient Greek and Etruscan buildings often ended in upright, painted, mold-made terracotta members called antefixes which usually took the form of either human or mythological heads. These antefixes had three functions. First, they concealed the termini of convex tiles and thus protected them from bad weather. In addition, they were part of the architectural decoration. Finally, these visages were believed to possess an apotropaic role, fending off evil and bad luck from temples.

For a closely-related antefix in the British Museum see C. Johns, Cattle, History, Myth, Art, London, 2011, p. 70, acc. no. 1884,1011.7.

Provenance: private New Jersey, USA collection; ex-Arte Primitivo, New York, USA, Sale #81, July 20, 2016; ex-Robert Feuer collection; ex-Zadok Arts, Jerusalem, Israel, in the mid-1980s

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#190208

  • Condition: Missing area at each side as shown, antefix section at rear missing approximately 3/4 of the clay sleeve.

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November 15, 2024 8:00 AM MST
Louisville, CO, US

Artemis Fine Arts

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