Piccole matres in trono da Capua : Appunti preliminari sulla plastica votiva di Fondo Patturelli

This short paper aims to present some preliminary results of the research conducted on the small votive terracottas representing seated women with a child. These votives belong to the sanctuary of Fondo Patturelli at Capua, where this iconography is strongly attested, considering also the well-known tufa statues and some samples among the big votive terracottas, from the Late Archaic Period till the 1st century BC. The large variety of the till now identified types shows the originality of the Capuan workshops who were capable of selecting Greek iconographical models and re-adapting them to the religious feelings of the local community. In this process, a very great role could have been played by the particular features of the sanctuary itself, a lucus, where the cult of fertility and children protection were dominant and pervasive in all their aspects.