Girl Clutching a Bag of Knucklebones Terracotta Figurine in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, January 2018

Figurine of a seated girl with bag (phormiskos) of knucklebones
Greek
Hellenistic Period
300–250 B.C.

Place of Manufacture: Greece, Boiotia, Tanagra

Medium/Technique: Terracotta, Painted

Dimensions Overall: 14 x 7.2 x 6.5 cm (5 1/2 x 2 13/16 x 2 9/16 in.)

Credit Line: Museum purchase with funds donated by contribution

Accession Number: 01.7841

Collections: Ancient Greece and Rome

Classifications: Sculpture

Description: Little girl seated on a cubic block, holding a small bag in her right hand. The girl wears a short-sleeved chiton. Her long hair is curled at the sides and is braided on top leading to a knot at the crown of her head. A large, almost square vent hole takes up most of the back side of the block. Red-brown color is preserved on hair and bag, brown on eyes, red on lips, pink preserved on shoulders of chiton; traces of pink on chiton; white base layer well preserved over most of composition; gray-black on seat. The front of the plinth is broken off. The figure was fastened to a flat base plate before firing.

Almost certain that the bag she carries in her right hand contains knucklebones. Children are often depicted clutching a sack filled with their knucklebones.

Her hairstyle is known as the lampadion, or "little torch," because the piles resemble the flames of a torch.

Provenance: By 1901: with Edward Perry Warren (according to Warren's records: Bought in Paris.); purchased by MFA from Edward Perry Warren, December 1901


Text from: collections.mfa.org/objects/151796/figurine-of-a-seated-girl-with-bag-phormiskos-of-knucklebo