Our last post was of an important and rare fragmentary sculpture now in the Metropolitan Museum in New York. However, as we’ve discussed in earlier posts, the term 'museum quality', doesn't mean the items have to be mind-numbingly expensive, incredibly imposing or of the highest sophistication, they can also be small and filled with immense charm. Just look at this tiny sculpture, hand modelled from wet clay, simply pulled and shaped into a creature of fancy, decorated with a few deft strokes of paint. It is full of immediacy, wit and delight, the very definition of what it is to be human and creative.
If anyone knows what this double creature might be, sharing a body and with one having an arm held at the waist, whilst the other raises its arm to the shoulder, then do let us know!
It was sold to the University of Queensland, Australia in 2018.
Cypriot conjoined animals, Middle Cypriote Period, c.1500 BC
Terracotta
Height 9cm
Provenance:
Prof. Dr. Gùˆnther Marschall (1913-1997), Hamburg; acquired Kunsthaus am Museum, Carola van Ham, Köln, Auktion 57, 23rd November 1973, no.22
