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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1977.216.2006
Title
Curved Handle with Relief Decoration at One End
Classification
Vessels
Work Type
handle
Date
6th century BCE
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Europe, Etruria
Period
Archaic period
Culture
Etruscan
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/304091

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Bronze
Technique
Cast and hammered
Dimensions
15.3 x 3.4 x 1 cm (6 x 1 5/16 x 3/8 in.)
Technical Details

Chemical Composition: XRF data from Artax 1
Alloy: Bronze
Alloying Elements: copper, tin
Other Elements: iron
Comments: There may be trace gold in one area.
K. Eremin, January 2014

Technical Observations: The patina is green with spots of blue. Exposed underlying layers are dark red. The object appears to be completely mineralized. The curve at the end could be a distortion related to the breaking of the handle at this end prior to burial.

The decorative relief design at one end is probably cast, although the completely corroded condition makes even this uncertain. If this were cast, the strap sections below would appear to have been hammered into their final configuration. There appear to be three layers to this hammered section, with the middle layer slightly wider than the front and back layers.


Henry Lie (submitted 2012)

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Transfer from the Department of the Classics, Harvard University
Accession Year
1977
Object Number
1977.216.2006
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
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Descriptions

Published Catalogue Text: Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes at the Harvard Art Museums
This narrow handle terminates in a pair of opposed volutes from which springs the beginning of a palmette. At the top of the volutes, an upward-pointing triangular shape is visible. This ensemble ends in a horizontal band of vertically oriented small beads.

A fragment of the vessel to which this handle was attached adheres to the backside of the lower attachment plate. The preserved upper end of the handle begins to curve inward, suggesting that this object formed the vertical handle of an oinochoe or olpe (a round-mouthed jug). It may have ended in a high loop, curving downward to join the rim of the vessel with a socketed flange. The handle has suffered severely from acute corrosion, which has fissured its sides and obscured any surface ornament that may have once been present on the handle itself. The style of what remains of the volutes and other features on the base attachment plate suggests that its date is most probably within the third quarter of the sixth century BCE (1).

NOTES:

1. For a handle in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, inv. no. 08.258.8a-b, with a similar design, see G. M. A. Richter, Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Bronzes, Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, 1915) 33, figs. 54-55; and R. D. de Puma, Etruscan Art in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (London, 2013) 78, no. 4.43.


David G. Mitten

Publication History

  • Thomas Weber, Bronzekannen: Studien zu ausgewählten archaischen und klassischen Oinochoenformen aus Metall in Griechenland und Etrurien, Verlag Peter Lang (Frankfurt, 1983), p. 422, no. IVEtr.f.8, pl. 18.

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