Published Catalogue Text: Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes at the Harvard Art Museums
The scene on this irregularly shaped attachment plate from a vessel handle depicts a centaur, body to the left, head turned to the right, grasping a small lion crouched on his back (1). The centaur appears to be wearing a helmet. Details of the face are not well preserved, but the eyes, ears, nose, and mouth are visible. He grasps the lion with his bent right arm. The front of the lion is shown from above with its face turned to bite the centaur. Its hindquarters are shown in profile, seated directly on the back of the centaur, and its tail is raised. There is an unknown object, perhaps a cloak, over the right shoulder of the centaur. The centaur’s four legs are all shown; the front right leg is raised and bent, the front left leg is locked straight, the back left leg moves forward, and the back right leg is locked. The centaur’s tail hangs down. There are cutouts between the front and back right legs and between the back left and right legs. The back of the plate is slightly concave and featureless, with the exception of two vertical gouges. There is a clear break at the top where the handle would have attached to the plate.
NOTES:
1. For other handles with figural attachment plates, see M. Kohlert-Németh, Archäologische Reihe Römische Bronzen aus Nida-Heddernheim 2: Fundsachen aus dem Hausrat (Frankfurt, 1990) 60-61, no. 33; Los bronces romanos en España, exh. cat., Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Palacio de Velazquez (Madrid, 1990) 292, no. 244 (a scene of Eros sacrificing); and H. Sedlmayer, Die römischen Bronzegefässe in Noricum, Monographies instrumentum 10 (Montagnac, 1999) 23, no. 3.1.7, pl. 7.2 (two erotes). See also ibid., 85-86, pl. 34.5-6, for two small figural attachments that would have been joined to vessels by a loop and have a generally similar form to this piece. Compare the figural attachment plates in S. Tassinari, Il vasellame bronzo di Pompei, Ministero per i beni culturali ed ambientali, Soprintendenza archeologica di Pompei 5 (Rome, 1993) pls. 145-46, esp. D2300, no. 18762 (two facing figures)
Lisa M. Anderson
