Classification
Culture
Dimensions
height: 7.8 cm
Date
1st century B.C.
Period
Material
Iconography
Production place
Present location
Provenance
Inventory
T.535
ID
Hyp-547
Condition
Body beyond waist broken off and lost.
References
The figure is represented in a posture associated with mourning. The man leans his head on his right hand, his elbow rests on his left hand, in which he holds a goose by its feet (now damaged). The face has a suffering expression.
In Greek iconography, the posture of the arms signified deep concern and philosophical concentration but was also associated with mourning. The fragment may represent a slave or a person of low standing in a cult context, and follows the tradition of Alexandrian Hellenistic terracottas, where representations of crippled and grotesque figures in cult contexts may have been meant to be luck-bringing rather than caricaturistic.
This record is subject to revision due to ongoing research.