Conceived in a single moment of recognition — maker facing original — and realised over months of devoted craft, La Dama is not an interpretation of the ancient Iberian bust. She is a conversation with it. A reimagining in cotton and jute of an object that has outlasted every civilisation that created it. Now she lives again, in fibre and knot, at 150 × 180 centimetres, on a white wall in the present tense.
Dama de Elche
Museo Arqueológico Nacional, Madrid
La Dama, Reinventada
Del Arroyo
The Story
The Dama de Elche is the most enigmatic face in all of Iberian history.
Found in Elche in 1897, carved from limestone in the fourth century before
the common era, she is a woman of extraordinary presence — jewelled, formal,
serene. No one knows who she was. No one knows who made her.
What we know is that she endured.
The maker stood before her for a long time.
Then she went home, unrolled her rope, and began.
La Dama was not constructed from a pattern. There was no grid, no template, no precedent. The maker drew the figure in chalk on a studio wall, then worked from life — reinterpreting the ancient form in the language of the knot, section by section.
Three textile identities coexist in the finished piece: the silver-grey woven rattan of the headdress, monumental and architectural; the soft sage cotton of the body, draped and feminine; and the deep onyx of the surround, which makes the figure emerge as if from stone. The rose is the only warmth. It is, of course, the face.
4
Distinct materials150×180
Centimetres1
Maker. One of one.2,500
Years of conversation
Dama de Elche Reinventada
Universitas Miguel Hernández — Official Publication
La Dama is a singular work. She is available for acquisition by a private collector, or for institutional loan and exhibition. To enquire, please contact our specialist directly. All conversations are conducted in complete confidence.
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