A GREEK BRONZE MIRROR COVER

LATE CLASSICAL PERIOD, CIRCA 4TH CENTURY B.C.

Details

A GREEK BRONZE MIRROR COVER
LATE CLASSICAL PERIOD, CIRCA 4TH CENTURY B.C.
The underside and flange of the cast lid with a series of lathe-turned concentric moldings, the exterior with a hammered sheet appliqué of a woman's head in profile to the left, wearing a plain necklace, her hair pulled back over her ear, a loose gathering hanging in back, the strands incised, with a continuous profile from the forehead to the tip of the nose, a large heavy-lidded eye and a small mouth with full lips
4 5/16 in. (11 cm.) diameter

Provenance

with Robin Symes, London.
with Royal-Athena Galleries, New York, 1990.

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. 90-04.

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

Profile female heads are perhaps the most common subject on mirror covers, such as the example in the National Museum, Athens, no. 283 in Rolley, Greek Bronzes. According to Vermeule and Eisenberg (op. cit., p. 21) "there has been an effort to show that mirror-cases in low relief were made in Tarentum or Magna Graecia, while those in higher relief were products of Corinth or the Peloponnesus." Further, "the silver coins of Corinth in the fourth century B.C. provide a repertory of ideal female heads and their variations in hair styles which relate closely to the female head seen on this ensemble."

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