Focus on Tanagra (Gérôme sculpture) and explore the The ancient Tanagra figurines.
In December 1870, at a site called Tanagra in Greece, archaeologists unearthed a group of Hellenistic terra cotta figurines bearing traces of original polychrome. The discovery caused a sensation, because it provided firm evidence supporting the theory that ancient sculpture was painted. The Tanagra figurines, which depicted not gods or heroes but ordinary people, were exhibited at the Exposition Universelle of 1878 in Paris, where they charmed and fascinated the public. In subsequent decades, countless forgeries flooded the art market. Tanagra figurines infiltrated popular literature and theater, as seen by references in Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891) and An Ideal Husband (1895), and Marcel Proust's Swann's Way (1913).
Tanagra figurines The Picture of Dorian Gray Tanagra figurine Exposition Universelle of 1878 An Ideal Husband Marcel Proust Tanagra Oscar Wilde Paris Swann's Way