Etruscan Terre cuite Tête votive d'homme. IIIe-IIe siècle av. J.-C. 21,5 cm H.

Votive Head of a Man.

Etruscan, 3rd-2nd century BC.

Terracotta.

Height 21.5 cm

PROVENANCE: Private collection, Miklos Bokor (Budapest, 1927 - Paris, 2019), Paris, France.

Miklos Bokor was a French-Hungarian painter and essayist born in Budapest on March 2, 1927 and died in Paris on March 18, 2019.

Miklos Bokor was deported to the Auschwitz extermination camp with his entire family in 1944. After the death of his mother, he was transferred to Buchenwald, Rhemsdorf, Tröglitz and Kleinau with his father, who disappeared in Bergen-Belsen. After being liberated in 1945, he was repatriated to Budapest by the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.

After a first private exhibition in Budapest in 1953, Miklos Bokor remained in Paris and settled permanently in France in 1960. At the Janine Hoa gallery, which presented his paintings in 1962, he became friends with the poets Yves Bonnefoy and André du Bouchet, who would later regularly prologue his exhibitions. For more than 40 years he had a studio at La Ruche, the famous artists' residence in Paris.

Boklor's art was inspired by his experiences in the Holocaust and his work reflects the horror of extermination. He once described this impact on his work as: In Auschwitz something happened that lurks in society like a breach, a wound that does not heal. Returning from death, one who has lived in his flesh and spirit the experience of dehumanization begins to paint the unspeakable. Much of Boklor's work is in the collections of the Musée d'Art Moderne in Paris.

As an artist he was interested in other painters as well as in cultures prior to the civilization that triggered such a terrible situation. He formed a large collection of archaeological objects, focusing mainly on the Near East and the birth of civilization on the banks of the Euphrates.

CONDITION: Good condition.

DESCRIPTION:

The Etruscans produced heads, profiles of faces, hands, feet and other body parts as accompanying votive offerings in fired clay for votive use.

Etruscan art is often religious in nature and is therefore related to the demands of the Etruscan religion. The Etruscan afterlife was negative, unlike the positive point of view of ancient Egypt where it was a continuation of earthly life, or the relationships of trust with the gods typical of ancient Greece. The Etruscan gods were indifferent and tended to bring good luck, so Etruscan religion was centered on their veneration and the adoration of the dead. Most of the remains of Etruscan art are found in cemetery excavations (such as at Cerveteri, Tarquinia, Populonia, Orvieto, Vetulonia, Norchia), which means that we see Etruscan art dominated by representations of religion and in particular cult funeral.

In the clay urns in which the remains of the deceased were kept, sculptural elements appear representing anatomical elements of the deceased, for example, the head-shaped lid. In a later phase, life-size human figures appear reclining on the lid as if it were a bed. The faces denote the influence of archaic Greek sculpture. In opposition to Greek stone sculpture, Etruscan sculpture takes shape in softer materials that enable a more elastic, fluid and rounded modulation, imbuing the figures with a natural spontaneity.




Notes:

- The piece includes authenticity certificate.
- The piece includes Spanish Export License (Passport for European Union). NOT TAXES.
- According to Spanish legislation, items sent outside the European Union are subject to export taxes and will be added to the invoice, at the buyer's expense. These export fees are fixed on the final auction price and the tax rate is not applied directly on the total value of the item to be exported, but rather the different percentages by sections are applied to it:
- Up to 6,000 euros: 5%.
- From 6.001 to 60.000 euros: 10%.
This export permit application process can take between 1-2 months maximum.
- The seller guarantees that he acquired this piece according to all national and international laws related to the ownership of cultural property. Provenance statement seen by Catawiki.