Statuette of Standing Woman, Seated Hatshepsut, and Snake Goddess in the Metropolitan Museum of Art - Essay Example

A great deal of information about a given society can be preserved in the sculptures and other artworks they leave behind.  By studying the various elements of a given piece, including the elements that are added specifically or given particular importance, and then comparing these elements to similar creations in other cultures can help us to understand the greater significance of the work.

  As an example, a specific statuette will be examined in this context. The “Statuette of a Standing Woman” currently in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is made of terracotta and dates back to sometime in the late fourth or early third century BC.  It is of Greek origin and probably Boeotian.  Terracotta is a specific type of clay that is fairly common and produces a red to a pale yellow shade of pottery depending on the iron content in the clay.

  In this case, the pale yellow tint of the clay gives the statuette an almost life-like quality.  The artist remains unknown, but the region the statuette is believed to have come from is a specific region of Greece that later became widely associated with uneducated or stupid individuals.  This statuette, however, displays no indication that the artist was incapable of understanding the technical attributes of weight, gravity, form, and direct modeling to produce a figure that is very realistically posed as compared to other statues created during this period.

  This is covered by another traditional piece of clothing called a himation, which covers the woman’s shoulders, portions of her arms, her torso and falls down at an angle to her upper thighs.  Again, the folds of the fabric appear natural as they stretch in a soft diagonal across her hips and upward across her chest.  Her face is rendered in great detail, providing her with round eyes, full cheeks, and a delicate chin.  Her hair is also highly detailed, parted in the center, and pulled back into a bun. There is evidence that the statuette was once painted as red tints can still be found in the hair.