Incorrect Username, Email, or Password
This object does not yet have a description.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1947.48
Title
Fragment of a Box Mirror Relief with a Hunter with Dog
Other Titles
Former Title: Fragment of Cheek Piece with Hunter & Dog
Classification
Mirrors
Work Type
mirror cover
Date
5th century BCE
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Europe
Period
Archaic period to Classical
Culture
Greek
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/304239

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Leaded bronze
Technique
Repoussé
Dimensions
12.4 x 6.8 cm (4 7/8 x 2 11/16 in.)
Technical Details

Chemical Composition: XRF data from Tracer
Alloy: Leaded Bronze
Alloying Elements: copper, tin, lead
Other Elements: iron

K. Eremin, January 2014

Technical Observations: The patina consists of heavily corroded layers of alternating green malachite and red cuprite with cracking and wart-like formations. The reverse is filled with lead that has white and brown lead corrosion as well as red copper corrosion. Lead was identified on the object by microchemical testing.

The thin relief is heavily corroded and has numerous cracks. The proper left edge is the original edge, as indicated by the corrosion present there. The proper right curved edge (running from the figure’s face down to his proper left hand) is a modern edge freshly cut through the corrosion, bronze, and lead. Other edges appear to be from ancient damage and have corrosion present. The lead appears to be an ancient reinforcement.

Because the bronze is so corroded, it is difficult to determine the method of manufacture, but the corroded condition could indicate that the metal was heavily worked by hammering, that is, by repoussé and chasing. This work left the metal in a stressed condition that was more vulnerable to corrosion. The thin relief was reinforced by pouring lead into the reverse.


Carol Snow (submitted 2002)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
[American Art Galleries, 6-8 January 1927, lot 86] sold; to V. G. Simkhovitch, sold; to the Fogg Art Museum, 1947.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Frederick Randolph Grace Memorial Fund
Accession Year
1947
Object Number
1947.48
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Permissions

The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request.

Descriptions

Published Catalogue Text: Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes at the Harvard Art Museums
This fragmentary relief bears a scene of a nude youth patting the head of a dog. The youth is seated on a rock or a pillar covered with cloth, as drapery appears to be rendered below his proper left thigh. The youth’s head is in profile, facing left, while his torso is turned in three-quarter view. His musculature is rendered rather naturalistically; his torso includes an extra fold at the navel. His hair is short and wavy. His nose, right ear, eye, and half of his mouth are modeled, while the rest of his face blends into the blank field behind his head. The youth’s proper left arm hangs by his side, with his index finger extended. His right arm reaches out to touch the head of a dog, facing right, with its muzzle lifted to touch the youth’s arm. The dog is shown in profile, with details of its head clearly modeled and part of its body visible below the fragmentary legs of the youth.

G. M. A. Hanfmann, in his 1947 article on this piece, noted the difficulties in determining its original function, whether it was a decorative component of a helmet’s cheek piece, a vase-handle attachment, or even a mirror cover (1). Although it is possible that this could be a fragment from a cheek piece, comparison with a very similar and better preserved mirror decoration showing a nude figure patting a dog in the Musée du Louvre, Paris, inv. no. Br 1716, indicates that this is more likely to be a mirror cover (2). The edges of some mirror cover fragments, including some still in situ on mirror discs, have curving borders that sometimes resemble cheek pieces (3). Depictions of youths with dogs also occur on marble grave stelai and may be signs that the young men are hunters (4).

NOTES:

1. Id., “A Greek Bronze Relief,” Bulletin of the Fogg Art Museum 10.6 (1947): 184-88.

2. See A. de Ridder, Catalogue des bronzes antique 2, Museé du Louvre (Paris, 1913) 49, no. 1716, pl. 79.

3. See See A. Schwarzmaier, “A Greek Box Mirror in the Cleveland Museum of Art,” Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 80.9 (1993): 354-67; and ead., Griechische Klappspiegel: Untersuchungen zu Typologie und Stil, Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Athenische Abteilung: Beiheft 18 (Berlin, 1997) passim.

4. See, for example, the grave stele from the Ilissos River in the National Archaeological Museum, Athens, inv. no. 869, dated to the mid-fourth century BCE, which shows a nude youth facing an old man with a dog and a slave at his feet.

Lisa M. Anderson

Publication History

  • George M. A. Hanfmann, "A Greek Bronze Relief", Bulletin of the Fogg Art Museum (1947), Vol. 10, No. 6, 184-188.
  • George M. A. Hanfmann, Greek Art and Life, An Exhibition Catalogue, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1950), no. 16.
  • George M. A. Hanfmann, "Acquisitions of the Fogg Art Museum: Sculpture and Figurines", American Journal of Archaeology (1954), Vol. 58, No. 3, 223-229, p. 227-28, pl. 39, figs. 14-15.
  • Brian Aitken, "A New Cheekpiece", Antike Kunst (1982), Vol. 25, No. 1, 58-61, p. 61, no. d.
  • David Gordon Mitten and Amy Brauer, Dialogue with Antiquity, The Curatorial Achievement of George M. A. Hanfmann, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1982), p. 14, no. 40.
  • Wolf Rudolph and Adriana Calinescu, ed., Ancient Art from the V. G. Simkhovitch Collection, exh. cat., Indiana University Art Museum (Bloomington, IN, 1988), p. 92, no. 68.
  • [Reproduction Only], Persephone, Vol. 11, No. 1, Spring 2011, p. 44.

Exhibition History

  • Greek Art and Life: From the Collections of the Fogg Art Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and Private Lenders, Fogg Art Museum, 03/07/1950 - 04/15/1950
  • Dialogue with Antiquity: The Curatorial Achievement of George M.A. Hanfmann, Fogg Art Museum, 05/07/1982 - 06/26/1982
  • Of Gods and Mortals: Ancient Art from the V. G. Simkhovitch Collection, Indiana University Art Museum, 09/16/1987 - 12/20/1987

Subjects and Contexts

  • Ancient Bronzes

Related Works

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