Bronze

Statuette

Casalserugo (Padua)

Pre-roman

5th-4th century B.C.

The statuette, made of full-cast bronze, was found in 1883 in Casalserugo (Padua) and represents a female figure in whom a goddess, or more probably a devotee, has been recognised. She is represented standing, in a rigid frontal position, wrapped in a cloak that merges with the wide skirt from which her exaggeratedly large feet emerge. The forward half is less carefully worked than the skirt and the back of the coat, smoothed with a file. The face features are very sketchy, almost grotesque, with huge eyes and a pointed nose, and the cloak covering the whole figure gives an excessive flatness, while the breasts are rendered very clearly. This physical characteristic has allowed comparisons to be made with small figurines rediscovered in other cultural settings in the Venetic area or in the Mediterranean, which were thought of as votive offerings to a fertility cult that was symbolised by prosperous forms often left uncovered. However, it is thanks to comparisons with bronze statuettes from Padua and to the working technique that the statuette could be dated to the 5th-4th centuries BC.