Tanagréennes d'Alexandrie

DOMINIQUE KASSAB TEZGÖR

Etudes Alexandrines 13, Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale, Cairo, 2007

The elegant terracotta figurines of well-dressed women were created at Athens in the Hellenistic period. Most often called Tanagras, because first discovered by chance during the 19th century in the necropolis of Tanagra in Boeotia, they were the object of real craze throughout the entire Greek world. The coroplath, or figurine maker, workshops of Alexandria, whose foundation in 331BC coincided with the beginnings of this fashion, adopted this theme in all of its diversity. Their production illustrates the close relations between Alexandria, Athens and Boeotia: moulds and indeed figurines, which were copied or from which moulds were taken, were sent from Greece. None the less, Alexandria’s craftsmen had their very own production, creating certain types that revealed their artistic talent, though techniques and stylistics allow for their statuettes to be distinguished from those of other production centres. Thanks to the often well-preserved colouring, the collection of Tanagras is one of the jewels of the Graeco-Roman Museum. Their presence in great numbers in the tombs of the eastern cemeteries of the city, which were destined for Greeks, shows that these figurines were tightly linked to funerary beliefs and that they must have played a role in the rites of passage to other world.

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