Goddess With Child – Archaic Cyprus – Circa 550 To 500 Bce – Archaeology

Goddess with Child – Archaic Cyprus – Circa 550 to 500 BCE. A rare votive statuette representing a goddess with a child (kourotrophe), an exceptional example of Cypriot religious art from the Archaic period. This sculpture displays the stylistic features characteristic of the production of major Cypriot sanctuaries. The iconography depicts a nurturing goddess carrying a child, a kourotrophe type. The treatment emphasizes the hieratic frontality and geometric schematization typical of archaic island art. The figure wears a veil that falls along her body. The style reflects the convergence of Aegean-Anatolian and Orientalizing influences characteristic of Cyprus during this period. These statuettes served as votive offerings deposited in island sanctuaries in connection with fertility and maternal protection cults. They were offered to female deities, probably local forms of the Great Cypriot Goddess. Similar examples are held at the Louvre Museum (N III 2654, AM 3015, AM 3012, MN 1633, AM 3016, MN 1629, AM 3017), notably from the sanctuaries of Ayia Irini and Golgoi. It bears an old handwritten label affixed to the front, stating "Gallic statuette, mother goddess, goddess of fertility." Although this attribution is erroneous, it reflects the history of 19th-century collections and attributions, a period when Mediterranean antiquities were sometimes confused with Celtic artifacts. This label itself constitutes a historical document on the evolution of archaeological knowledge. The statuette has been reinforced with a modern armature and is displayed on a contemporary base. This work comes from the important Bessonneau collection, a French private collection assembled between the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a golden age for the formation of major collections of Mediterranean antiquities. Cyprus, Archaic period. Circa 550-500 BC. Limestone. H. 20 cm - W. 9.5 cm - D. 4 cm. Julien Bessonneau (1842-1916). Born into a wealthy industrial family, Julien Bessonneau significantly expanded his linen and hemp weaving factories, becoming the leading industrialist in Angers by the 1870s. On the eve of the First World War, his businesses employed approximately one in sixteen Angers residents. Like many business leaders of his time, he established social programs, including a sports club that would later become SCO Angers, and contributed to the growth of the aeronautics industry with the famous Bessonneau hangars, which were widely used during the war. He owned several prestigious residences: the Château des Brosses near Saint-Clément-de-la-Place, the Château de Mûrs south of Angers, and a large private mansion in the center of Angers, as well as a Parisian residence on the rue de Constantine. A great collector, he amassed a vast art collection: paintings, decorative arts, sculptures, African and Oceanic objects, and numerous archaeological pieces. His post-mortem inventory in 1916 revealed hundreds of antique objects (Cypriot, Greek, Phoenician, Gallo-Roman vases, etc.). His purchases are documented by numerous invoices from specialist dealers. After his death, neither his heirs nor his company continued to expand this collection. A major sale in 1956 dispersed a portion of the works.