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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1991.247
Title
Ribbon-Shaped Handle with Lower Attachment Plate of Couchant Rams
Classification
Vessels
Work Type
handle
Date
mid 6th century BCE
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Europe, South Italy or Sicily
Period
Archaic period
Culture
Greek
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/303848

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Leaded bronze, traces of gilding
Technique
Cast, lost-wax process
Dimensions
12.2 x 8 cm (4 13/16 x 3 1/8 in.)
Technical Details

Chemical Composition: ICP-MS/AAA data from sample, Leaded Bronze:
Cu, 89.95; Sn, 5.97; Pb, 3.57; Zn, 0.013; Fe, 0.09; Ni, 0.04; Ag, 0.07; Sb, 0.06; As, 0.12; Bi, 0.093; Co, 0.021; Au, less than 0.01; Cd, less than 0.001
J. Riederer

Technical Observations: The patina is pale green with some reddish brown and black. One area on the reverse has a smooth brown patina. The handle fragment has broken ends, and the mouth of one ram is missing. The surface detail is poorly preserved.

The handle was made by lost-wax casting, with most surface design probably done in the wax model. Remains of mechanical attachments are evident on the reverse: a round impression in the middle of the lower end and corroded metal behind one of the ram’s heads.


Carol Snow (submitted 2002)

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
1991.247
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 fragment is the lower portion of a solid-cast vertical handle for a bronze vessel. The upper portion is missing. What remains consists of the flattened lower section of the handle in profile, convex on both sides, and the baseplate, which consists of two reclining rams facing outward above two opposed volutes in low relief. The lower part of the base attachment plate, which probably consisted of a large palmette, is missing. While the bodies of the rams are cast in low relief, their heads, facing forward and down, are rendered in the round. Their facial features are carefully rendered with horns, and there is incised cross-hatching atop their heads in front of their horns.

The handle itself rises from an oval, conical projection in high relief, the top of which is marked by a low horizontal band of tiny relief beads. Lines of similar beads mark the edges of the handle and its midsection (1). The curving reverse side of the base attachment plate reveals a centrally placed cavity that may indicate that there was once a rivet at this spot. The style of the handle and nature of the curving concavity on the backside suggest that this handle probably belonged to an oinochoe rather than a hydria. The style of the recumbent rams suggests a date around 550 BCE or slightly later, and that this piece was made in a workshop somewhere among the colonial Greek centers of southern Italy.

NOTES:

1. See M. Comstock and C. C. Vermeule, Greek, Etruscan and Roman Bronzes in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Greenwich, CT, 1971) 368-69, no. 514, for a handle with a similar flat shaft and central row of bead-like incisions.



David G. Mitten

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