
Francesca Hickin
Head of Department
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£3,500 - £4,500
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Head of Department
Provenance:
Private US collection, acquired in New York in 1970.
Anonymous sale; Pierre Bergé, Paris, 26 May 2011, lot 304.
Due to their apotropaic function, gorgons were often used as the subject in the decoration of Greek temples; for example, a gorgon appears in the pediment of the temple of Artemis in Corfu, dated to the beginning of the 6th Century B.C.. Gorgons are also depicted in numerous examples of terracotta antefixes from Sicily - see W. Hornbostel, Aus Gräbern und Heiligtümern. Die Antikensammlung Walter Kropatscheck, Mainz, 1980, p. 175, no. 103.