In the late 4th c. BC coroplastic workshops started producing new types of figurines. These were mould-made and represented elegant female figures swathed in elaborately draped himatia, who frequently held fans or wreaths in their hands and sometimes wore widebrimmed hats. Standing, seated or in dancing movement, the figures were decorated in bright colours, mainly shades of red and black, and more rarely blue. They are known as ‘Tanagra figurines’ because scores of them were unearthed in the late nineteenth century in cemeteries at the site of Tanagra in Boeotia. Today we know that they were mass-produced all over the Hellenistic world –and in a great variety of types– until the late 3rd c. BC. In contrast to earlier figurine types, which represented deities or hieratic figures and were mainly for ritual use, the ‘Tanagra’ figurines seem to have portrayed mortals and were mainly ornamental in function. Their appearance is linked with developments in monumental sculpture in the 4th c. BC, specifically with the turn towards realism. The tendency of artists to abandon the idealistic models of the Classical period and to devote themselves to conveying the inner world of people, in combination with the improved social status of women in the Hellenistic period, brought a new ideal of female beauty, more focused on sensuality.