A GREEK BRONZE GRIFFIN PROTOME

EAST GREEK, ARCHAIC PERIOD, CIRCA 6TH CENTURY B.C.

Details

A GREEK BRONZE GRIFFIN PROTOME
EAST GREEK, ARCHAIC PERIOD, CIRCA 6TH CENTURY B.C.
Joined to two converging sections of a rod tripod, the upper from the inward curving horizontal ring, with a bead-and-reel molding to the left, the lower from the upper arching section of a leg, with a similar molding to the left, both with portions of similar moldings to the right, the griffin projecting forward with a menacing open beak revealing its tongue, with upright ears and a central knob, the neck with an incised scale-pattern
4¼ in. (10.8 cm.) high

Provenance

with Robin Symes, London.
with Royal-Athena Galleries, New York, 1988.

Literature

C.C. Vermeule and J.M. Eisenberg, Catalogue of the Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Bronzes in the Collection of John Kluge, New York and Boston, 1992, no. 88-60.

Exhibited

From Olympus to the Underworld, Ancient Bronzes from the John W. Kluge Collection, Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, 26 March - 23 June 1996.

Lot Essay

This griffin protome is thought to join a fragment in the collection of the French School of Classical Studies in Athens, no. 135, pl. 45 in Rolley, Monumenta Graeca et Romana, vol. V, Greek Minor Arts, Fasc. I, The Bronzes.

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