A bird with a loop on its back.
Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College
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Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College

A bird stands on legs that are wide and flat, with a round body that tapers into a short tail. Its neck is a narrow cylinder that bends into the head, and the cylinder is flattened to indicate a beak which bends slightly upward. There is a thick loop on the birds back which a chain or rope could be tied to. The surface is polished brown with some green spots on it.

Gallery Text

Bronze is an alloy of copper and tin that has been used for thousands of years to make objects as diverse as sculpture and figurines, weapons and armor, and jewelry and tableware. The addition of tin and sometimes lead made the alloy more versatile and lowered its melting point; another common copper alloy is brass (copper and zinc), which was in widespread use in the Roman period. Although other materials, like stone, glass, and terracotta, were available, copper alloy items were valued for their golden sheen, versatility, and durability. The material lent prestige and beauty to objects like these statuettes, most of which would have been dedicated to the gods. Modern bronzes are often artificially patinated, like the Rodin sculpture in this colonnade. While ancient bronzes were sometimes gilded or deliberately darkened, the unaltered surfaces naturally acquired a red, green, or brown patina over time.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1986.505
Title
Water Bird Pendant
Classification
Jewelry
Work Type
pendant
Date
second half of the 8th century BCE
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Europe, Thessaly
Period
Geometric period, Late
Culture
Greek
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/303781

Location

Location
Level 3, Room 3200, Ancient Mediterranean and Middle Eastern Art, Classical Sculpture
View this object's location on our interactive map

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Bronze
Technique
Cast, lost-wax process
Dimensions
6.8 x 8.3 x 2.9 cm (2 11/16 x 3 1/4 x 1 1/8 in.)
Technical Details

Chemical Composition: ICP-MS/AAA data from sample, Bronze:
Cu, 86.9; Sn, 12.47; Pb, 0.25; Zn, 0.008; Fe, 0.04; Ni, 0.02; Ag, 0.09; Sb, 0.12; As, 0.1; Bi, less than 0.025; Co, less than 0.01; Au, less than 0.01; Cd, less than 0.001
J. Riederer

Technical Observations: The patina is blackish green with brown encrustations from burial. Some porosity and pitting are present, but the object is structurally intact.

The body of the bird was hollow cast in one piece by the lost-wax process. The solid legs may have been cast separately. An x-radiograph of the bird shows excess metal and a metal rod inside the bird’s body. This is remarkably similar to what was found inside fibulae of the same period, such as 1952.14, 1986.571, and 1932.56.22.


Carol Snow (submitted 2002)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Northwick Park Collection (Captain E. George Spencer-Churchill, M.C., by 1964), sold; [through Christie, Manson, & Woods, St. Jame's, London, June 23, 1965]. Eric de Kolb, New York, NY, (by 1966). [Jerome J. Eisenberg, Royal-Athena Galleries, New York, NY, (by 1985)], gift; to Harvard University Art Museums, 1986.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Jerome M. Eisenberg in memory of George M.A. Hanfmann
Accession Year
1986
Object Number
1986.505
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Descriptions

Published Catalogue Text: Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes at the Harvard Art Museums
This plump bronze bird may be a goose, judging from its long, curving neck and heavy body. Its surface is a shiny blackish brown with some dark green patches. The metal is rough on the interior surfaces of both legs, and there are three tiny holes: one behind the left leg and two others beneath the body to the rear of the legs. Incised parallel lines mark the leg joints, the backside of the upper neck, and the point where the tail narrows as it rises from the back. The squared-off end of the tail is marked with twelve short parallel lines. Incised cross-hatching is visible on the breast and on the sides of the body above the legs.

The head has an elongated bill, which curves upward at the tip, and relief pellet eyes; the right eye is placed slightly farther back than the left eye. The sinuous neck flows into a curving breast and broad horizontal back. The flat, wide legs, with their spur-like joints, are bowed and terminate in forward-projecting feet on which the bird is able to stand easily. A sturdy, transverse loop rises from the back.

This bird may have been produced in a Thessalian or possibly Macedonian workshop of the late eighth century BCE. A close parallel to this piece is in the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore (1). Similar birds in the Volos Museum come from Pherai, Thessaly (2). In the case of another large hollow-cast bronze bird with fanciful crest and tail, the ceramic core shifted during casting, creating a gap through which the core is visible. Presumably, the Harvard bird contains a similar ceramic core (3).

NOTES:

1. D. K. Hill, “Other Geometric Objects in Baltimore,” American Journal of Archaeology 60 (1956): 35-42, esp. 36-37, figs. 2-3, pl. 28.

2. J. Bouzek, “Die griechisch-geometrischen Bronzevögel,” Eirene 6 (1967): 115-39, esp. figs. 6 and 11; K. Kilian, Fibeln in Thessalien von der mykenischen bis zur archaischen Zeit, Prähistorische Bronzefunde 14.2 (Munich, 1975) 168-87, pls. 85-86; I. Kilian-Dirlmeier, Anhänger in Griechenland von der mykenischen bis zur spätgeometrischen Zeit, Prähistorische Bronzefunde 11.2 (Munich, 1979) 139-41, pls. 42-44; and J.-L. Zimmermann, “Oiseaux géométrique de Grèce central et septentrionale,” Numismatica e Antichità Classiche (Quaderni Ticinesi) 17 (1988): 37-53.

3. Previously in the Norbert Schimmel collection and now in a California private collection; see D. G. Mitten and S. F. Doeringer, Master Bronzes from the Classical World, exh. cat., The Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University; City Art Museum of St. Louis; The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Mainz, 1967) 41-42, no. 25.


Tamsey Andrews and David G. Mitten

Publication History

  • Sotheby & Co, November 14, 1966, auct. cat., Sotheby & Co. (London, 1966), pp. 70-71, no. 160
  • David Gordon Mitten and Suzannah F. Doeringer, Master Bronzes from the Classical World, exh. cat., Verlag Philipp von Zabern (Mainz am Rhein, Germany, 1967), p. 40, no. 23.
  • Imma Kilian-Dirlmeier, Anhänger in Griechenland von der mykenischen bis zur spätgeometrischen Zeit, C. H. Beck (Munich, 1979), p. 140, no. 772, pl. 42.
  • Dr. Jerome Eisenberg, Art of the Ancient World: Ancient, European, Oriental, Pre-Columbian and tribal works of art, Royal Athena Gallery (New York, NY, 1985), p. 14, no. 23.

Exhibition History

  • Master Bronzes from the Classical World, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 12/04/1967 - 01/23/1968; City Art Museum of St. Louis, St. Louis, 03/01/1968 - 04/13/1968; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, 05/08/1968 - 06/30/1968
  • 32Q: 3200 West Arcade, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050

Subjects and Contexts

  • Ancient Bronzes
  • Google Art Project

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu