Archaeological Museum of Bologna

The votive schematic type bronzes, such as these, representing male and female characters, standing, with stretched out arms, are well spread throughout Etruria Valley.

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More than three hundred have come to light in about 50 locations, found in groups of various sizes as part of votive offerings, shrines mainly dug into the earth and housing objects offered to the divinities. These are therefore ex-voto, often of very diversified quality and certainly made locally, so generic that it is usually difficult to trace from them the type of cult practised or the divinities venerated. Sometimes they are associated to anatomical ex-voto, which is a general indication of health cults. About 30 of these bronzes come from the Villa Cassarini shrine votive offerings, and several are of better quality, like a statuette of a figure in a toga. In the past, many would have been affixed to the travertine cippi of various shapes found in the shrine area, forming its monumental furnishings.

Provenance: Bologna, Villa Cassarini sanctuary
Datation: c. late 6th– 5th century BC
Material: Bronze
Dimensions: h cm 5,5; 12,2
Inventory #: SBAER 41456, 41458