A large ancient Greek painted terracotta antefix with the the grimacing face of a Gorgon, probably Medusa, surrounded by rearing snakes.
Tarentine.
Ca. 520 – 500 BC.
Antefixes were ornamental pottery caps that covered the open ends left by semi-cylindrical tiles at the edge of a temple roofs. They were often adorned with apotropaic images like Gorgons and Satyrs.
Formerly in the collection of Artemis A. W. Joukowsky (1930-2020) and Dr. Martha Sharp Joukowsky, president of the Archaeological Institute of America, 1989-1993, (1936-2022), Providence, Rhode Island; previously, Christie’s, London, March 23, 1971, lot 85.
Sold
