The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 18, 2025

A small bronze sculpture with a worn and chipped surface of a woman standing up. Her hands are together, placed at her forehead and she is wearing a voluminous layered skirt. One tendril of hair snakes down her back.

Female Worshiper

c. 1600–1500 BCE

Crete, Minoan, middle Minoan III–late Minoan I

bronze
Overall: 14 cm (5 1/2 in.)
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 2002.89
Location: 102B Greek

Did You Know?

The shaved head with prominent locks of hair indicates that this female votive figure is an adolescent.

Description

This extremely rare Minoan bronze statuette represents a girl worshiping a deity. It was probably left as a dedication to a divinity. She wears a flounced skirt over a sleeved robe open at the front. The figure shows a remarkable degree of detail, including looped earrings, bracelets, and a necklace. Her shaved hairstyle, not found on any other Minoan bronze statuette, matches that of painted figures in roughly contemporary frescoes uncovered on the island of Thera, north of Crete. Its excellent condition, rarity, fine detail, and balanced proportions set it apart from other statuettes of its type to have survived.
  • Marion Schuster, Lausanne; Nadine von Mauthner
  • Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 76-77
    "A Walking Tour: The entire new museum wing by wing, with curators calling out a few favorite works in the collection.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 54, no. 1 (January/February 2014): 8-33. Reproduced and Mentioned: p. 10 archive.org
    Cleveland Museum of Art. Museum Masters: 2016-17 Companion Guide. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2016. Mentioned and Reproduced: P. 12
    Franklin, David and C. Griffith Mann. Treasures from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH; London: Cleveland Museum of Art; Scala Publishers Ltd., 2012. Mention: p. 18; Reproduced: p. 19
  • {{cite web|title=Female Worshiper|url=false|author=|year=c. 1600–1500 BCE|access-date=18 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2002.89