Supplicants placed votive heads in temples to accompany requests and offerings of thanks to the gods. Artisans used molds to produce images of both men and women. On finer examples, such as this head, a pointed tool was used to refine elements of the face and hair before the object was fired in the kiln. Traces of pigment suggest that the hair was originally painted bright red. Earrings once hung from holes in the ears.
Date
Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.
IIIF Manifest
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Art Institute of Chicago, Annual Report: 1974-75 (Art Institute of Chicago, 1975), p. 31.
Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago, vol. 72, no. 1 (January-February, 1978), pp. 1-5.
Lousie Berge and Warren G. Moon, “An Etruscan Votive Head in the Classical Collection,” Bulletin of The Art Institute of Chicago 72, 1 (January-February, 1978), pp. 2-5.
Steven George Smithers, “The Typology and Iconography of Etruscan Terracotta Curotrophic Votives: The Heads and Bambini,” (Ph.D. diss., University of Iowa, 1988), pp. 61-63, 67, 69, 96, 266, and 291-92 (cat. no. 22).
Richard De Puma, “Ancient Art at The Art Institute of Chicago,” The Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 20, 1 (1994), pp. 60, 61 (ill.).
The Art Institute of Chicago, “Etruscan Art” in Family Self-Guide, (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1994).
Karen Alexander, “The New Galleries of Ancient Art at the Art Institute of Chicago,” Minerva vol. 5, no. 3 (May/June, 1994), p. 31, fig. 8.
Art Institute of Chicago, The Human Figure in Early Greek Art, A Preview, Part One, Gallery 101A, September 1, 1988 – May 24, 1989.
Art Institute of Chicago, Ancient Art Galleries, Gallery 156, April 20, 1994 - February 6, 2012.
Art Institute of Chicago, Of Gods and Glamour: The Mary and Michael Jaharis Galleries of Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Art, Gallery 152, November 11, 2012 - present.
Matthias Komor, New York; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1975.
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