Iberian Bronze Votive Sculpture of a Woman

This charming bronze depicts a female of slender form. The most striking features are the outstretched arms with disproportionately large hands, held out in a gesture of supplication. The slightly bent knees reinforce this attitude of devotion or subservience to a higher being. The long hair frames the face in two thick strands. The facial features include a small grooved mouth, a long projecting nose and protruding circular eyes. The figure is dressed in a long tunic, which is folded diagonally across the chest. An outer, cape-like garment covers the head and back.
The Iberians were not a clearly defined cultural group, rather this is the term adopted by the ancient Greeks and Romans to refer to those living in the east and south of the peninsular. Prior to the Carthaginian and Roman conquests, their society was organized on a tribal basis. Extensive trading links were established with other Mediterranean powers such as the Greeks and the Phoenicians and these contacts are believed to have influenced their sculptural tradition. Small-scale votary figures of this kind would have been placed in temples or shrines to seek the favour of the gods.

See Sabatino Moscati’s ‘The Phoenecians’, p. 230 (1988). – (FZ.005)