Hey dear community, at the beginning I would like to welcome you all to my new post and hope you had a day that was full of positive experiences! In this article, I would like to discuss an interesting historical topic and hope you are able to expand your knowledge.

![_DSC2385 3.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/elevator09/23u63F9pkpEEPvbGYBWPLKtGBUCskBcL58mwXQwymVisoGiZDZuD7AVdHpy3jxXKCUi7W.jpg)

You can see here different types of Tanagra figurines which is as a collective name of figures which were made of terracotta and predominantly represent women in different postures. The origin of the name goes back to the Greek city of Tanagra, which in antiquity was the main town of Boeotia, which defines an area in the central part of Greece and the traces of this historical landscape can already be traced back to the Stone Age. These figures are a good example of mass production in antiquity and in the first step the figures were formed and pressed into different shapes and then burned and then painted and it often happened that it was first painted with a white primer and then repainted with different colors which should give the women the most natural expression possible. These figures were on average between 20 to 30 cm high and usually they represent women with clothes or other garments such as hats and sometimes it also happened that men were also depicted. The facial expressions as well as other characteristics of the figures look very authentic and detailed and sometimes they were also based on the mythology or historical themes and the excavations of the original figures can be traced back to the 19th century and today there are numerous artists who have focused on the recreation of these figures. It is assumed that the figures were found for the first time during the 4th century BC and in addition to production in Tanagra, there were also production facilities in other countries and the figures were so popular that they were exported and a market was created at that time and so there are also discoveries from other countries in the Mediterranean and there are different uses and often they were used for religious purposes in addition to the decorative purpose and are a good example of ancient Greek art. I have already presented some of these figures in the past in a post where I have more about the history of terracotta in art and if you want to learn more about it, I can recommend this post [here](https://peakd.com/blog/@elevator09/terracotta-in-art-history).

![_DSC2384 4.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/elevator09/23vsLXFqy99jytaqvqyf1koaf95xurgsch99sWQnLK9s8gngM9wHAEPvD7GG8RC1BQTRg.jpg)

![_DSC2386 2.JPG](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/elevator09/23vi1oJEcW6NC3K2uwVtKJW9s75UYcFPCoVt6GPku21ubDNJAqWa7XYEm3fUmdtzQ8YqN.JPG)

![_DSC2383 2.JPG](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/elevator09/23uFTYxqCmao3SfUSbvhx3qof2cx9Qp2JfJtXTaMw1j1KWTsfKBEckcYqGXSKzvK6FN9Z.JPG)

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you could learn something new about art history! I captured these pictures with my Camera Sony Alpha 6000 plus 55-210 mm lens.