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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1977.216.1857
Title
Minerva with Phiale
Classification
Sculpture
Work Type
statuette, sculpture
Date
2nd-3rd century CE or later
Places
Find Spot: Ancient & Byzantine World, Europe, Cerveteri (Etruria)
Period
Roman Imperial period
Culture
Roman
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/281916

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Leaded bronze
Technique
Cast, lost-wax process
Dimensions
6.9 x 4.2 x 2.7 cm (2 11/16 x 1 5/8 x 1 1/16 in.)
Technical Details

Chemical Composition: ICP-MS/AAA data from sample, Leaded Bronze:
Cu, 81.38; Sn, 8.64; Pb, 9.77; Zn, 0.011; Fe, 0.01; Ni, 0.07; Ag, 0.05; Sb, 0.07; As, less than 0.10; Bi, less than 0.025; Co, less than 0.005; Au, less than 0.01; Cd, less than 0.001
J. Riederer

Technical Observations: The patina is a thin layer of dark brown. There is no clear evidence of long-term burial. The object is intact. The raised left hand, which has an odd shape, appears to have been cast that way rather than damaged. It is possible that the loss occurred in the wax model stage.

The statuette is a solid cast. Some or most of the details of modeling, especially in the head and gorgoneion on the chest, appear to have been worked directly in the wax. The centers of the eyes were made using a punch tool in the metal.


Henry Lie (submitted 2001)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Oric Bates, Boston (by 1918), loan; to the Department of the Classics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA (by 1918-1977), transfer; to the Fogg Art Museum.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Transfer from the Department of the Classics, Harvard University, Gift of Oric Bates
Accession Year
1977
Object Number
1977.216.1857
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
Standing frontally, Minerva raises her left hand, which would originally have held an upright spear or staff, while her right hand is held out at waist level, grasping a circular patera with a raised central boss (1). The craftsmanship is rather rough, and the goddess has a rather short, stocky build. She wears a high-crested Italo-Corinthian helmet, with a crest that is forked in the front and ends in a long tail in the back that attaches to her shoulders. Her hair is rendered in wavy locks pulled into a roll on either side of her head and gathered at the back of her neck. Her facial features, including the eyes, raised brows, prominent nose, wide mouth, and pointed chin, are large and rough. She wears a mantle over a short-sleeved garment. The gorgoneion of her aegis is represented as an animal face with a broad brow, large eyes, and a flattened nose. The tips of both feet are just visible under the hem of her garment. The statuette is fully modeled in the round. Examples showing Athena (Minerva) in this stance and bearing a libation dish date from the Archaic period (2).

NOTES:

1. An almost exact copy of this statuette is in Braga; see A. J. N. Pinto, Bronzes figurativos romanos de Portugal (Lisbon, 2002) 165-66, no. 33, pl. 47. A closely comparable statuette, although lacking a mantle, is in the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, inv. no. Fr. 1878. Two others from Augst, of a slightly different style, are published in A. Kaufmann-Heinimann, Götter und Lararien aus Augusta Raurica: Herstellung, Fundzusammenhänge und sakrale Funktion figürlicher Bronzen in einer römischen Stadt, Forschungen in Augst 26 (Augst, 1998) 80 and 138, nos. S35-36.

2. Larger and more carefully formed statuettes of Minerva, although in the same stance and also bearing a circular object (described as a shield in one case), are presented in Los bronces romanos en España, exh. cat., Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Palacio de Velazquez (Madrid, 1990) 243-44, nos. 151 and 153. An example from Sparta, dated to the Archaic period, shows Athena holding in her right hand a patera with a raised boss and lifting her left to hold a spear, as in the Harvard example; see Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae Athena no. 185 (top).


Lisa M. Anderson

Subjects and Contexts

  • Ancient Bronzes
  • Roman Domestic Art

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