Votive Statuette
Terracotta
Italy
300 - 200 B.C.E.
April 2024 Art In Medicine topic is about Votive Statuettes
Lucinda Bennett, the Medical Librarian at Ascension St Agnes Hospital in Baltimore, MD, publishes a regular series on Art in Medicine and The Health Humanities.
It's only 1-2 pages with gorgeous images, so it won't take you long to read ... and just might enrich your life.
This month, Lucinda is featuring Votive Statuettes.
“Votive offerings have been part of the human relationship with
gods and belief from pre-history to the present. Today we might
light a candle, a stick of incense, lay a bunch of flowers or in
some Catholic churches people still leave a wax body part by way
of an offering, but in the ancient world the practice was more
wide-ranging, literal and multifaceted.” (Anatomical votives)
Seeking divine intervention is a practice as old as human
civilization. Interpreting these items gives us insight into the
wishes and everyday struggles of our ancestors. In what is today
Italy and Greece, votive offerings in any number of shapes can be
found in the ruins of temples. So many votive offerings have been
found across the lands compromising the ancient Mediterranean
world that it is incredibly common to find them in any classical
museum. The Getty is one of the most famed institutions in the
United States, and holds possession of the votive offering pictured
here. A summary of the object is as follows:
“This statuette represents a male torso with an incision from the
breast bone to the abdomen that exposes the internal organs. The
dedicator perhaps suffered from stomach or intestinal problems.
The model is a schematic version of the human anatomy rather
than an exact replica, but the relative placement, size, and shape
of organs is generally correct. Such medical knowledge of internal
anatomy may have been gained from the observation of butchered
animals or mortally wounded warriors on the battlefield.” (The
Getty)
The votive here hails from the Etruscan people, a society that predates and was eventually assimilated into the Roman Republic. In turn, the Etruscans had been greatly influenced by the Grecian city states. Therefore, the widespread and very similar art of medical votives reaches across the whole of the Mediterranean. A procedure
300 - 200 B.C.E. would accompany the leaving of the offering, a process which can be found in replication in many temples.
The Science Museum in London provides a quick summary of the healing
prayer process as described by one of their curators when promoting an exhibit on these fascinating figurines.
“After a series of rituals including the burial of a votive, patients would sleep for a night in the temple of Asclepius
and hope for a dream of the god or a snake that would cure them of all kinds of illnesses, ranging from the plague to
a fractured bone. Alternatively, after a successful cure, anatomical votives might be offered to the relevant deity as
an expression of thanks.” (Sciences Museum)
Interestingly enough, during the exact same time the practice of votive offerings was at a height, the basis of modern
medical philosophy was coming into being. Around the 5th century B.C.E. into the 4th century B.C.E, the Classical
period of ancient Greece was in full swing - and so was Hippocrates. As such, the Hippocratic method emerged. At
the time, even as this early scientific methodology spread, patients might take both techniques of healing into
account. After all, why not take advantage of all treatments when you can? We find evidence of this in first hand accounts from the era. Another layer of complexity stems
from the formation of these votives. Most of the time we
find singular anatomical pieces, torsos, limbs, heads, and so
forth. But we also see a combination of artistry that
specifically crafted just those body pieces whilst others
exhibit purposeful destruction.
“In recent years, the intentional fragmentation of artifacts
has been given a good deal of attention by anthropologists
and archaeologists, partly in response to John Chapman’s
pioneering studies of fragmentation and the powerful
explanatory model of “enchainment.” These sorts of
deliberate breakage are conceptually very different from the
“meaningful wear and tear” that we hear about in the Greek
epigrams, and are less commonly observed in relation to
votives, in comparison with other types of objects such as
funerary artifacts. However, some votive examples have
been tentatively identified. Ian Ferris, for instance, has
suggested that certain broken figurines from Italy, France, and Britain may have been deliberately fragmented in association with a request for divine healing.” (Open University) It could be hypothesized that the fully formed statuette was ritually broken to mimic whatever ailment plagued the patient, before they proceeded to seek the resident physicians who occupied the temple and/or sought the intervention of whichever
deity the site was dedicated to. An entire industry arose from the creation and sale of these objects, often attached or
nearby the temples themselves. Workshops specializing in the creation of full or partial anatomical votives are
found in ruins and are depicted in both red and black figure pottery scenes. Oftentimes the limb votives are pictured
hanging on the walls of the artisan’s workshop, ready for purchase or to mimic how the offerings were displayed
post visit in the temple. To a modern viewer’s eyes this might seem odd, but to be frank these votives were seen as
medical devices in their own right. What difference is there between these offerings of the past and medical device
companies which sell directly to consumers today?
“Whatever their stories and meaning, Greco-Roman temples must have been colourful places filled with literal
representations of people’s hopes and fears. And although the way people make votive offerings has changed, these
ancient objects from centuries ago remind us of the role faith, prayer and good fortune plays in the face of illness,
healing and human frailty.” (Anatomical votive offerings from the Greco-Roman world)
References:
The Getty Museum - Votive Statuette
The Open University - Tiny and Fragmented Votive Offerings from Classical Antiquity
Anatomical votive offerings from the Greco-Roman world
Science Museum
Reprinted with the generous permission of Ms. Bennett.
.jpg)
