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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1975.77
Title
Geometric Bird
Classification
Jewelry
Work Type
pendant
Date
second half 8th-first half 7th century BCE
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Europe, Northern Greece
Period
Geometric period to Orientalizing
Culture
Greek
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/304044

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Bronze
Technique
Cast, lost-wax process
Dimensions
4.4 x 8 x 0.2 cm (1 3/4 x 3 1/8 x 1/16 in.)
Technical Details

Chemical Composition: XRF data from Tracer
Alloy: Bronze
Alloying Elements: copper, tin
Other Elements: lead, iron, silver, antimony, arsenic, bismuth
K. Eremin, January 2014

Technical Observations: The patina is a smooth pale green and black with patches of green and brown encrustations that bear some fibrous pseudomorphs. A few areas feature red cuprite below the smooth surface. The figure is structurally sound.

The relatively flat cast geometric bird was probably made by lost-wax casting with the circular designs applied in the wax. Tool marks on the smooth surface underlying the corrosion are ancient. Other tool marks on the outer edge of the circular design toward the front of the bird’s crest show chatter lines that are modern.


Carol Snow (submitted 2002)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Norbert Schimmel collection, gift; to the Fogg Museum, 1975.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Norbert Schimmel
Accession Year
1975
Object Number
1975.77
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 silhouette pendant in the form of a stylized bird with a large crest and prominent curving tail was cast in a two-piece mold. It is decorated with punched circles with central points. There is one at the base of the suspension loop on both sides, three on the crest, and four on the tail. Two short legs with rounded tips diverge from the body under the central loop. The pointed head projects straight downward from the rounded crest. The tail curves upward and ends in a curving tip. Both head and tail were made approximately the same size so that the pendant would balance when suspended. This type of silhouette bird pendant is known from other examples in northern Greece and the southern Balkans (1). The prominent crest and tail mark this bird as a stylized fowl, of the kind often termed “peacocks.” Three-dimensional examples of such large, fantastical bird pendants are well known from Perachora and Delphi (2). A third example, formerly in the Norbert Schimmel collection and now in a private collection in California, has lost the tip of its arching tail (3). The date is probably in the eighth century BCE.

NOTES:

1. Compare J. Bouzek, Graeco-Macedonian Bronzes (Prague, 1974) 90, fig. 27.5; and I. Kilian-Dirlmeier, Anhänger in Griechenland von der mykenischen bis zur spätgeometrischen Zeit, Prähistorische Bronzefunde 11.2 (Munich, 1979) 136-38, nos. 745-57, pls. 40-41.

2. For the bird from Perachora, see H. Payne, Perachora 1 (Oxford, 1947) 125-26, no. 3, pl. 37. For the bird from Delphi, which can rest on its two feet as well as be suspended, see C. Rolley, Monuments figurés: Les statuettes de bronze, Fouilles de Delphes 5 (Paris, 1969) 86-90, no. 146, pl. 25.

3. O. W. Muscarella, ed., The Norbert Schimmel Collection (Mainz, 1974) no. 10.


David G. Mitten

Publication History

  • "Four New Objects for Ancient Art Collection", Fogg Art Museum Newsletter (Spring 1976), p. 5.

Subjects and Contexts

  • Ancient Bronzes

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