Bronze
H: 11.05 cm
Provenance: no indication
Celto-Iberian
4th-2nd century B.C.?
Solid-cast, a few traits underlined by chisel in the cold, and burnished.
Condition: patina a dark black to olive green, surface with a few pin-holes (casting bubbles) and small nicks all over. Traces of brown earth.
With his unusual bulbous expressive head with slight tilt forward, he stands with closed hands in an attitude of awe and worship. Whether he was dressed in a tight-fitting tunic is uncertain. The closest parallel for type, stance and arms, but with a different head, less bulbous and more oval, is a statuette, neither as sensual, compact or harmonious in execution or finish, of an otherwise very similar offerer [1]. R. Lantier describes it as having a "rough body with large pear-shaped head with over-sized chin". It has similar short legs with small feet. Probably also from the sanctuary of Despenaperros since a comparison for the type and of similar appearance is a statuette in Madrid [2]. Thus, for the same reasons as for the worshipper, cat. no. 202, we tentatively ascribe this male statuette to the sanctuary of Despenaperros.
1 Lantier, R.: Bronzes votifs ibériques (Paris, 1935), no. 36, p. 48, pl. V.
2 National Archaeological Museum 29022: Alvarez-Ossorio, F.: Museo Arqueologico Nacional. Catalogo de los exvotos de bronce, ibéricos (Madrid, 1941), no. 553, p. 92, pl. 73.
