Tile with Female Face Artist: Unknown

ca. A.D. 245

Ancient Art

On view, 1st floor, Dura-Europos

Probably about 450 tiles showing female heads, land and sea animals, fantastic beasts, Evil Eyes, vegetation, and inscriptions once covered the Synagogue ceiling, demarcating the sacred space with an otherworldly "sky." This example (one of 234 preserved tiles) depicts a common type, the female face, which may represent the vegetative powers of nature. The figure's mass of red hair sprouts leaves and flowers. Painted ceiling tiles were also used in private houses at Dura-Europos.

Medium

Clay with layer of painted plaster

Dimensions

14 13/16 × 20 1/4 × 4 in. (37.7 × 51.5 × 10.2 cm)

Credit Line

Yale-French Excavations at Dura-Europos

Accession Number

1933.267

Geography

Excavated in Dura-Europos, Syria

Culture

Syrian, Dura-Europos

Period

Roman (3rd century A.D.)

Classification

Paintings

Disclaimer

Note: This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect the Yale University Art Gallery’s complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of records is ongoing.

Provenance
Excavated by the Yale-French Excavations at Dura-Europos (block L7, Synagogue), present-day Syria, 1928–37; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn.
Bibliography
  • Jennifer Chi and Sebastian Heath, eds., Edge of Empires: Pagans, Jews, and Christians at Roman Dura-Europos, exh. cat. (New York: Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, 2011), 50, no. 33, fig. 2–19
  • Lisa R. Brody and Gail Hoffman, eds., Dura-Europos: Crossroads of Antiquity (Boston: McMullen Museum of Art, 2011), 339, no. 30, pl. 30
Object copyright
No Copyright - United States
Additional information

Object/Work type

tiles

Subject

face

Technical metadata and APIs

IIIF

Open in Mirador

View IIIF manifest

The International Image Interoperability Framework, or IIIF, is an open standard for delivering high-quality, attributed digital objects online at scale. Visit iiif.io to learn more

Linked Art

API response for this object

Linked Art is a Community working together to create a shared Model based on Linked Open Data to describe Art.