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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1991.246
Title
Trefoil Oinochoe Handle
Other Titles
Alternate Title: Trefoil Oinochoe Handle with Terminals Depicting a Maenad and Dionysos Mask
Classification
Vessels
Work Type
handle
Date
late 4th-first half of the 3rd century BCE
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Europe, Northern Greece
Period
Hellenistic period, Early
Culture
Greek
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/303777

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Bronze
Technique
Cast, lost-wax process
Dimensions
12.4 x 3.4 x 5.1 cm (4 7/8 x 1 5/16 x 2 in.)
Technical Details

Chemical Composition: ICP-MS/AAA data from sample, Bronze:
Cu, 84.99; Sn, 13.93; Pb, 0.68; Zn, 0.025; Fe, 0.14; Ni, 0.23; Ag, less than 0.01; Sb, less than 0.02; 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 black with spots of red and raised areas of green. Although pitted and raised spots of corrosion cover over 20% of the surface, the remaining areas, including most of the two faces, are exceptionally well preserved. The object was broken and repaired 1 cm above the lower head.

The object is solid cast. Details in the hair may have been added directly to the cast wax model. Even finer details, such as the dots in Dionysos’ cloak and the hair right next to the skin of the female face, may have been cold worked in the bronze.


Henry Lie (submitted 2001)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Joseph Ternbach, New York, (1987) sold; [through Sotheby's, New York, November 24-25, 1987, sale 5640, lot #495] to; Jonathan Kagan, New York (1987-1991) gift; to Harvard University Art Museums.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Dr. Jonathan Kagan
Accession Year
1991
Object Number
1991.246
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
The vertical loop handle has a slightly tapered hexagonal grip and two anthropomorphic terminals. The upper terminal, which attached to the rim of a trefoil oinochoe, is in the form of a female head with finely engraved hair pulled back from her face and eyes positioned to look out over the vessel’s opening opposite the spout. The head has been identified as that of a goddess but it is more likely a representation of a maenad, one of the female followers of the god Dionysos (1). The lower terminal is offset from the hexagonal grip by a decorative molding that consists of a rounded element with vertical striations framed above and below by a narrow row of beads. The lower terminal depicts a frontal mask of Dionysos with a massive beard and long wavy hair bound by a diadem.

The handle is broken clear through the lower hexagonal grip and has been repaired. There is a small loss to the hair of the Dionysos mask on the proper right side. The metal has a brown patina with dark green corrosion visible in places.

NOTES:

1. The identification as a goddess is made in the Sotheby’s sale catalogue where the handle is also dated to the fifth or fourth century BCE.

2. Metal vessel handles with figural terminals have a long history in Greek art. Dionysiac imagery was particularly popular on oinochoai appropriately relating the wine jug with the god of wine. An earlier example of this type in bronze and dated to the middle of the fourth century BCE is known from a tomb at Michalitsi in Epirus. See T. Weber, Bronzekannen: Studien zu ausgewählten archaischen und klassischen Oinochoenformen aus Metall in Griechenland und Etrurien (Frankfurt am Main, 1983) 347, no. II.E.7. Outstanding examples of the middle of the fourth century BCE are the two silver oinochoai from the main chamber of Tomb II at Vergina. See M. Andronicos, Vergina: The Royal Tombs (Athens, 1993) 150-53, figs. 115-16; D. Pandermalis, Alexander the Great: Treasures from an Epic Era of Hellenism (New York, 2004) 74. The Vergina jugs have terminals framed by narrow rows of beads at the base of the handle that are very similar to the Harvard handle but more carefully rendered. Pandermalis identifies this decorative molding as a ring with an astragal. The appearance of this distinctive decorative feature on the Harvard handle may be indicative of a Macedonian workshop. Handles with terminals in the shape of female heads and Dionysiac masks continue into in the first century CE. See, for example, a bronze trefoil oinochoe from Pompeii in the Museo Archeologico Nationale, Naples, inv. no. 18763, published in S. Tassinari, Il vasellame bronzeo di Pompei (Rome, 1993) 42 and 218, type D2112, pl. 105.3-4.


Seán Hemingway

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