Tanagra head, Boeotia, 3rd century BC.

Female head with headdress. Tanagra, Boeotia, 3rd century BC.
Terracotta.
Provenance: Georges Savès collection.
Measurements: 7 cm. height.

The Tanagra figurines are female figures made in terracotta, adorned with elaborate hairstyles. Refined and elegant, the Tanagra figurines take their name from the region where they were discovered, Tanagra, in Boeotia.
In Boeotia (Greece) this type of terracotta figurines were used as offerings in temples and sanctuaries as well as in funerary offerings. The first Greek sculptures dating from the 9th century BC were small human figures made of malleable materials such as clay, ivory or wax. It was not until the Archaic period during the 7th and 6th centuries BC that the Greeks began to work with stone, however, preserving other materials, mainly ceramics due to the rise of this industry, for small pieces, intended to serve as offerings in temples or part of funerary offerings.

This piece comes from the collection of Georges Savès (1908-1985), a French numismatist and collector with a deep vocation for archaeological study. Heir to a family tradition of collecting, he devoted himself fully to historical and numismatic research since the 1950s, especially on Toulouse and Gallic coins. Throughout his life, he assembled an eclectic collection of archaeological, ethnographic and artistic pieces, enriched in 1966 with the acquisition of part of the Roger Bédiat collection. Author of specialized studies, his legacy remains a reference in the academic and patrimonial fields.