Figurines from Susa

From the Department of Exhibits We Want to See, an article (Les petites déesses de Suse, December 21) by Anne-Marie Romero for Le Figaro reviews an exhibit at the Musée Fenaille, in Rodez, France. The museum itself was a discovery for me. It was named for oil baron Maurice Fenaille, who donated the Hôtel de Jouéry in 1937 to house the museum. He was also an avid art collector and supporter of Rodin and of several museums in Paris. Here is a translated excerpt of this article:

These women are minuscule, held in the hand: from the most primitive, simple silhouettes of earth pinched to mark the head and arms, to the most sophisticated, nudes adorned with jewels and extravagant headdresses. "Women" because men represent only a tiny portion of these human figurines, which themselves total barely 1% of all the terra cotta statues recovered from ancient Susa, capital of an expanding territory between Iran and Mesopotamia called Elam. Annie Philippon, director of the Musée Fenaille in Rodez, famous for its menhir statues, its Gallic statues, and its overwhelming Renaissance crucifix, has chosen to continue illustrating what appears to be the museum's vocation, the human image. She asked Annie Caubet, curator of the Department of Oriental Antiquities in the Louvre, to mount this exhibit, with pieces lent exclusively by the great Parisian museum. Others will follow: Cyprus, perhaps the Levant.

Figures d'Elam, terres cuites de Suse (Iran), in cooperation with the Louvre, will be at the Musée Fenaille, Rodez, until March 27, 2005.