Published Catalogue Text: Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes at the Harvard Art Museums
This small belt plaque is in the form of a recumbent ibex with its head turned backward and touching its hindquarters. It has a long, ribbed horn that curves over its large oval ear. A raised circle represents the eye, and the mouth is open. Its head, neck, and body are rounded and somewhat naturalistic. The legs are folded under it, and the hooves, which connect, are clearly modeled. A curved element connects the neck of the ibex to its foreleg; there is a conical spike at the midpoint of this curve. Further details are obscured under the thick patina. The small plaque has irregular cutouts between the ear and horn, jaw and back, folded foreleg, body and hind leg, and between the neck and the curved element. On the back, at the opposite end from the spike, is a shaft with a flattened disk attached (0.5 cm high) for attachment. The reverse is otherwise flat and featureless, although the surface of the preserved patina is very rough.
The motif of the recumbent ibex, deer, or other animal is common in Central Asian decorative arts (1).
NOTES:
1. See E. C. Bunker, Nomadic Art of the Eastern Eurasian Steppes: The Eugene V. Thaw and Other New York Collections (New York, 2002) 40-41, 64-69, 120, and 158-59; nos. 1-2, 31-35, 91, and 135. Compare Treasures of the Eurasian Steppes: Animal Art from 800 BC to 200 AD, Ariadne Galleries (New York, 1998) 31 and 58, nos. 20 and 57. For a similar motif done in a different style, see U. Jäger and S. Kansteiner, Ancient Metalwork from the Black Sea to China in the Borowski Collection (Ruhpolding, 2011) 75-76, nos. 103-104 (Northern China and Mongolia/Siberia, fourth to second centuries BCE)
Lisa M. Anderson
