Collection: | Berlin, Antikenmuseen |
Title: | Berlin Goddess |
Context: | From Attica |
Findspot: | Found at Keratea |
Summary: | Female statue with polos and pomegranate |
Material: | Marble |
Sculpture Type: | Free-standing statue: kore |
Category: | Single monument |
Style: | High Archaic |
Technique: | In-the-round |
Original or Copy: | Original |
Date: | ca. 570 BC - ca. 560 BC |
Dimensions: | H. with plinth 1.93 m, H. plinth ca. 0.10 m, H. face 0.20 m, W. shoulders 0.55 m |
Scale: | Over life-size |
Region: | Attica |
Period: | High Archaic |
Subject Description:
This female figure wears an epiblema, or rectangular shawl, with tassels at the corners, over a sleeved, belted peplos. She stands in a frontal pose with her feet parallel, and both arms bent. With her right hand she holds a pomegranate--a fruit with funerary associations--in front of her right hip. She holds her left hand reverently in front of her chest. Her feet, shod in high-soled sandals, emerge from beneath arch-like openings at the hem of her skirt.
The hair of the so-called 'Berlin Goddess' is arranged in scallopped waves over the crown and forehead, and is tied behind the ears with a double-fillet, from which it falls in herringbone waves to just below the neck, where it is fastened in a cylindrical element around which parallel lines are incised. She also wears a polos, or cylindrical crown--a traditional headdress of fertility goddesses in the Near East and Greece--which is decorated with incised maeanders and lotus buds. She is also adorned with jewelry: a necklace and matching earrings, decorated with bud-like pendants, and a spiral bracelet on her left wrist.
Condition: Complete
Condition Description: This statue is complete, as it was found wrapped in lead, presumably as a form of protection in antiquity. The surface in in good condition, but slightly chipped. Traces of red, yellow, and blue pigment are discernible.
Material Description: White marble w/ blue-grey streaks (Attic, according to Blümel
Collection History: Acquired by the museum from the art market in 1924.
Other Notes: The pomegranate may be a gift to a deity (in which case this statue might be a votive monument), or merely a funerary indicator. If this statue does represent a deity--as suggested by the polos, as well as the statue's otherwise unsubstantiated nick-name, 'Berlin Goddess'--then the inclusion of the pomegranate would conspire to indicate that it represents Persephone, the daughter of the grain goddess Demeter, and the wife of the underworld god, Hades.
Sources Used:
Other Bibliography: AthMitt 52 (1927) 212