Acquisition number: 1966.40
The dove is of friable orange-red clay and has part of one leg missing; simple modelling.
Title: Figurine of a Dove - 1966.40
Acquisition number: 1966.40
Culture or period: Greek Classical.
Date: Later 6th century - Roman times.
Material: Clay - Terracotta
Object type: Sculpture and figurines
Dimensions: 57mm (l)
Origin region or location: Italy
Origin city: Possibly Gela.
Display case or on loan: 10
Keywords: Greek, Classical, Hellenistic, Roman, Figurine, Gela, Woite Collection, Sicily
J.R. Green with B. Rawson, Catalogue of Antiquities in the Australian National University, A.N.U. (Canberra, 1981) 85.
1966.40
Figurine of a Dove
From the Woite Collection; probably from the area of Gela, Sicily. Length 5.7cm.
The dove is of friable orange-red clay and has part of one leg missing; simple modelling.
Figurines like this are common all over the Mediterranean basin from the later sixth century to Hellenistic and Roman times, and it is difficult to distinguish any typological or stylistic development among them. The object could have been intended as either an offering or a toy, but one should note that doves were frequent love-gifts and often had an association with Eros and Aphrodite. Cf. Theocritus V, 96 for the bird’s use as a love-gift, and J.R. Green in: A.H. Griffiths (ed.), Stage Directions. Essays in Ancient Drama in Honour of Eric Handley (BICS Suppl. 66, London 1995) 93-121, on their use in the Great Procession of Ptolemy in Alexandria. The oinochoe by the Menzies Painter, 1965.21, elsewhere in this catalogue, also has a pet bird with strings from its legs.
See B. Vierneisel-Schlörb, Kerameikos XV. Die figürlichen Terrakotten griechischer Zeit (Berlin 1998) 165 nos 602-605, pl. 103, for examples from Athens of the fifth century. She gives valuable further references, including a number from contexts involving Aphrodite. Compare also the examples in Mollard-Besques, Catalogue raisonné I (Paris 1954), pl. 34, B 311-312, pl. 38, B 350 and in R.A. Higgins, Catalogue of the Terracottas in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, British Museum i (London 1954), pl. 34, nos 183-186 and 275, where further references will be found. For two marble examples, see the very useful entries in N. Kaltsas and A. Shapiro (eds), Worshiping Women. Ritual and Reality in Classical Athens (New York 2008) nos. 53 and 54 (from the sanctuary of Aphrodite at Daphni in Attica, and with reference to the excavations there).
See 1966.01-1966.42 in this catalogue for all material from the Woite Collection in the ANU collection.
J.R. Green with B. Rawson, Catalogue of Antiquities in the Australian National University, A.N.U. (Canberra, 1981) 85.