Skip to main content

Visit Main Menu Block

  • Hours & Admission
  • Accessibility & Amenities
  • Tours & Group Visits
  • Visitor Guidelines

Exhibitions and Events Main Menu Block

  • Exhibitions
  • Events

Art and Design Main Menu Block

  • The Collection
  • Projects & Publications
  • Past Exhibitions

Footer Main

  • Become a Member
  • Give
  • Who We Are
  • Opportunities
  • Rent the Museum

Image

Previous 1 / 1 Next

Greek

Dancing dwarf, late 3rd century BCE

Now On View

Description

Maker

  • Unknown

Culture

Greek

Title

Dancing dwarf

Year

late 3rd century BCE

Medium

Terracotta

Materials/Techniques

Materials

  • terracotta

Dimensions

Height: 14.9 cm (5 7/8 inches)

Place

Tarentine; Southern Italian

Type

  • Sculpture

Credit

Anonymous gift in honor of Celia Robinson Stillwell

Object Number

1991.028

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Ancient Greek and Roman Galleries

Hellenistic party hosts in the 3rd century BCE occasionally employed dwarfs as entertainers, hiring them to dance and amuse the guests. This terracotta figurine of a dwarf dancing and shaking a rattle depicts the practice. Scholars cite the shape of the skull and facial characteristics as evidence of a particular type of dwarfism displayed in many other Greek artistic works. Figurines like this would have been mass-produced by pressing clay into a mold and then painting it after it hardened. The well-preserved state of this figurine indicates that it was probably created for a tomb, where it may have been placed to scare away evil spirits.

Use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use. This object is in the public domain (CC0 1.0). This object is Dancing dwarf with the accession number of 1991.028. To request high-resolution files or new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.

Feedback

We view our online collection as a living documents, and our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you have additional information or have spotted an error, please send feedback to curatorial@risd.edu.

RISD Museum

  •  Facebook
  •  Twitter
  •  Instagram
  •  Vimeo
  •  Pinterest
  •  SoundCloud

Footer Main

  • Become a Member
  • Give
  • Who We Are
  • Opportunities
  • Rent the Museum

Footer Secondary

  • Image Request
  • Press Office
  • Rent the Museum
  • Terms of Use