Iberian sculpture, a subset of
Iberian art, describes the various
sculptural
Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...
styles developed by the
Iberians
The Iberians ( la, Hibērī, from el, Ἴβηρες, ''Iberes'') were an ancient people settled in the eastern and southern coasts of the Iberian peninsula, at least from the 6th century BC. They are described in Greek and Roman sources (amo ...
from the
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...
up to the
Roman conquest. For this reason it is sometimes described as Pre-Roman Iberian sculpture.
Almost all extant works of Iberian sculpture visibly reflect
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
and
Phoenicia
Phoenicia () was an ancient thalassocratic civilization originating in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily located in modern Lebanon. The territory of the Phoenician city-states extended and shrank throughout their histor ...
n influences, and
Assyria
Assyria ( Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , romanized: ''māt Aššur''; syc, ܐܬܘܪ, ʾāthor) was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization which existed as a city-state at times controlling regional territories in the indigenous lands of the ...
n,
Hittite and
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...
ian influences from which those derived (specially the Phoenician one); yet they have their own unique character. Within this complex stylistic heritage, individual works can be placed within a spectrum of influences- some of more obvious Phoenician derivation, and some so similar to Greek works that they could have been directly imported from that region. Overall the degree of influence is correlated to the work's region of origin, and hence they are classified into groups on that basis.
The Levantine Group
The sculptures that comprise the
Levantine group were mostly made between the 5th century B.C. and the period of Roman domination; this group is best represented in museum collections. The most famous among them is the bust known as ''The
Lady of Elche
The ''Lady of Elche'' (in Spanish, ''Dama de Elche'' in Valencian, ''Dama d'Elx'') is a limestone bust that was discovered in 1897, at ''La Alcudia'', an archaeological site on a private estate two kilometers south of Elche, Spain. It is curren ...
'', which displays evident Greek influence. Works in this style number over 670; though there are stylistic differences, which testify to the successive influences of conquering peoples.
More visibly oriental references, possibly influenced by the Egyptian
sphinx
A sphinx ( , grc, σφίγξ , Boeotian: , plural sphinxes or sphinges) is a mythical creature with the head of a human, the body of a lion, and the wings of a falcon.
In Greek tradition, the sphinx has the head of a woman, the haunches of ...
and the Assyrian
Lamassu
''Lama'', ''Lamma'', or ''Lamassu'' (Cuneiform: , ; Sumerian: lammař; later in Akkadian: ''lamassu''; sometimes called a ''lamassus'') is an Assyrian protective deity.
Initially depicted as a goddess in Sumerian times, when it was called ''La ...
, are evident in the various stone sculptures in the form of sphinxes, bulls, or lions found in the area of
Valencia
Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. The wider urban area al ...
,
Alicante
Alicante ( ca-valencia, Alacant) is a city and municipality in the Valencian Community, Spain. It is the capital of the province of Alicante and a historic Mediterranean port. The population of the city was 337,482 , the second-largest in t ...
, and
Albacete
Albacete (, also , ; ar, ﭐَلبَسِيط, Al-Basīṭ) is a city and municipality in the Spanish autonomous community of Castilla–La Mancha, and capital of the province of Albacete.
Lying in the south-east of the Iberian Peninsula, the ...
. They include:
* The
Bicha of Balazote, or the man-bull
* The
Sphinx of Agost, in Alicante, and that of Salobral (Albacete), which guards the
Louvre
The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...
Museum, though mutilated.
* The Lioness of Bocairent (Valencia), in the Provincial Museum of Valencia
* The
Lion of Coy in Murcia
* The Lions of Baena (Córdoba), which are similar to the previous ones
* The Deer of Caudete (Albacete) or the
Lady of Caudete
The numerous statues of bronze (some of silver) found in two places of the region of Sierra Morena in the province of
Jaén can be considered to be more indigenous derivatives of the initial, Greek and oriental- influenced, Levantine sculptural style.
In the period between the 5th century BC and the 5th century AD, sanctuaries like
Montealegre used small bronze castings, rather than stone carvings, as votive offerings. These sculptures were cast from earthen molds in molten bronze in the technique of
lost wax casting
Lost-wax casting (also called "investment casting", "precision casting", or ''cire perdue'' which has been adopted into English from the French, ) is the process by which a duplicate metal sculpture (often silver, gold, brass, or bronze) is ...
, but since the mold was rendered useless after only one casting, two identical works have yet to be found amongst these sculptures. Approximately 4,000 sculptures in this style have been excavated, depicting Iberian warriors, riders, religious celebrants, small horses, and body parts.
A great deal of Greek and
Punic
The Punic people, or western Phoenicians, were a Semitic people in the Western Mediterranean who migrated from Tyre, Phoenicia to North Africa during the Early Iron Age. In modern scholarship, the term ''Punic'' – the Latin equivalent of t ...
statues and busts in
Terra cotta
Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous.
In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracotta ...
, together with various amulets in ivory, metal or carved of thin stone, have been uncovered at the necropolis of
Ibiza,
La Palma
La Palma (, ), also known as ''La isla bonita'' () and officially San Miguel de La Palma, is the most north-westerly island of the Canary Islands, Spain. La Palma has an area of making it the fifth largest of the eight main Canary Islands. The ...
, and
Formentera. The oldest have been dated to the 8th century B.C., and they most likely continued to be made up to the Roman domination.
These include:
* The
Lady of Ibiza
* Praying Terracotta Figurines (3rd century BC)
Pieces also considered to be of Phoenician or Punic origin but with Greek influence include the bronze heads of bulls (probably votive offerings) found in
Majorca. A very early Phoenician piece from Galera depicts a seated female, perhaps
Astarte
Astarte (; , ) is the Hellenized form of the Ancient Near Eastern goddess Ashtart or Athtart ( Northwest Semitic), a deity closely related to Ishtar ( East Semitic), who was worshipped from the Bronze Age through classical antiquity. The name ...
, flanked by sphinxes.
* The
Lady of Galera
Lady of Galera is an alabaster female figurine, made in the 7th century BC, that probably represents the Near Eastern goddess Astarte. It is at the National Archaeological Museum of Spain, in Madrid.
The Lady of Galera is most likely of Phoenici ...
The Southern Group
The southern group is principally composed of sculptures found in sepulchers, and other funeral monuments, in the
Andalusia
Andalusia (, ; es, Andalucía ) is the southernmost autonomous community in Peninsular Spain. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomous community in the country. It is officially recognised as a "historical nationality". The t ...
n region. Most of them display heavy Phoenician influence. They are as follows:
* The sculptural set of Cerrillo Blanco
* the sculptural set of The Pajarillo
* The Punic stela of
Villaricos (
Almeria), of conical form and with Phoenician inscription
* The
Lady of Baza.
* The plates and combs of ivory with reliefs of Carmona's necropolis.
* The anthropomorphic sarcophagus carved in marble with the figure of the deceased, of the Greek style, found in Cadiz
* The amulets with figurines of Egyptian style found in sepulchers of Cadiz and
Málaga
* several other reliefs of the Phoenician or Iberian tradition but worked already with Roman influence, discovered in
Osuna (such as the
Bull of Osuna)
The Western Group
The western group is composed of granite funeral
stelae
A stele ( ),Anglicized plural steles ( ); Greek plural stelai ( ), from Greek , ''stēlē''. The Greek plural is written , ''stēlai'', but this is only rarely encountered in English. or occasionally stela (plural ''stelas'' or ''stelæ''), whe ...
from Portugal and
Galicia that represent foot soldiers dressed in tunics and armed with round shields. These sculptures are relatively coarsely worked. Some of them bear Roman inscriptions, which were probably added long after the figures were carved.
The Central Group
In the center of the Peninsula, between the rivers
Douro
The Douro (, , ; es, Duero ; la, Durius) is the highest-flow river of the Iberian Peninsula. It rises near Duruelo de la Sierra in Soria Province, central Spain, meanders south briefly then flows generally west through the north-west part o ...
and
Tagus
The Tagus ( ; es, Tajo ; pt, Tejo ; see below) is the longest river in the Iberian Peninsula. The river rises in the Montes Universales near Teruel, in mid-eastern Spain, flows , generally west with two main south-westward sections, to e ...
there are many granite sculptures roughly carved in the form of bulls, or perhaps some other animal. Some of these also have Roman inscriptions, which again were probably added later. The most famous of these monuments are the four known as the ''
Bulls of Guisando
The Bulls of Guisando ( es, Toros de Guisando) are a set of ancient sculptures located on the hill of Guisando in the municipality of El Tiemblo, Ávila, Spain. The four sculptures, made of granite, represent quadrupeds identified as bulls or pig ...
''. Archeologists consider them to be works of the same culture that carved the sphinxes of the Levantine region.
See also
*
South-Western Iberian Bronze
*
Iberian schematic art
Iberian schematic art is the name given to a series of prehistoric representations (almost always cave paintings) that appear in the Iberian peninsula, which are associated with the first metallurgical cultures (the Copper Age, the Bronze Age ...
*
Sphinx of Haches
*
Torito of Porcuna
References
* VV.AA. (1990). Escultura ibérica en el Museo Provincial de Jaén. Consejería de Cultura de la Junta de Andalucía. . (In Spanish)
{{Iberian sculpture
Archaeology of Spain
Spanish art
History of sculpture
Iberian art