Statuette

This statuette shows a seated figure in a long toga, body turned and left arm raised. Earlier Greek statues commonly depicted seated figures in this manner, knees slightly splayed, often, as here, one bent under the other leg, usually when a god or deity of some sort was being represented (see Elgin marbles for instance). Seated in this way with knees bent low, the figure has a rather flattened, or 'squashed up', quality, suggesting strongly that it was intended to be seen primarily from the front, and not in profile on at an angle. A likely setting for this figure was within an architectural niche, in which case the somewhat relief-like handling of the carving would not have mattered. The folds of the drapery are gouged and incised rather than carefully finished, and, again, not very three-dimensional in the effect produced. The back of the figure is very flat, and the drapery represented in a fairly rudimentary fashion, implying further that the behind of the figure was not often exposed to view.