#tanagras

Yes, these are a particular type of “protome.” Protomes are head/upper chest busts which may be fixed onto another structure (like a building) or are stand-alone. The vast bulk are terracotta although they also come in marble and bronze (especially Etruria liked their bronzes).

The type of protome I referred to function much like icons in Greek orthodoxy or images of Mary in Catholicism in the home: a site for family worship, and in the case of Persephone/Kore or Demeter (or Aphrodite) protomes, probably largely female worship. These tend to be the terracotta ones we find in archaeological sites. The fancy ones were for the wealthy.

In addition to these, we have a lot of full-body terracotta figures of women, sometimes referred to as “Tanagras” (from where the first were illegally looted in Boeotia), but these seem to be decorative figurines of non-divine women. So shouldn’t be confused with goddess protomes. Although sometimes it’s not entirely clear.

All these were made IN BULK, and I do mean IN BULK. See above an image from the Veroia Museum with about a gajillion tanagras…and this is what’s survived for over 2500 years. Just imagine how common they were and how many must have been out there.

The goddess protomes tend to be kinda generic: she can be whatever goddess you need her to be. Many of them have crowns/high headdresses called a polos (one way we know it’s a goddess). The sort of classic pose is a crowned figure of a young woman, arms bent, holding something in her hands. A Persephone would be holding a round object (like a pomegranate). We also see flowers (Aphrodite, but also Persephone if a lotus), etc. Again, these figures tend to be identified by what they’re holding. Otherwise you can’t really tell them apart. Persephone is more common in the archaic and classical periods, but we start to see (in Macedonia) a switch-over to Aphrodite in the mid-4th/early 3rd century. Persephone can be Demeter. We don’t seem to see Hestia, but her cult/symbol is specifically the hearth. See below for several protomes and below that, a matched set of Persephone and Hades. (The sign in Pella says Dionysos but that’s not Dionysos. Olga Palagia said it’s Hades; I trust her. Museum labels can be wrong. I’ve found quite a few with problems.)

📹🎥 challenge 📸📽

Madeleine Preston’s ‘Tanagras Archive’ installation will be showing in Home’s Invitational exhibition opening on July 11th.

“…The work in The Tanagras Archive are based on the Louvre’s Tanagras collection. On their unearthing in the 19th century, these Greek ceramics were coveted by the French bourgeoisie as affordable symbols of wealth and taste. A large collection of the Tanagras are held in the Louvre in Paris. They are located very near to the more famous Venus de Milo and people trudge past the Tanagras not registering their singular nature, they are made of clay, their age or importance. This heirarchy of artefacts gave me a strong sense of how fashion and museology dictate the way history and the history of art is understood. It also gave me a sense of how the small and quiet can become the forgotten. I chose to recreate the Tanagras in an attempt to remember them…”