AN ETRUSCAN SHEET SILVER AND BRONZE BELT BUCKLE PLAQUE

CIRCA 650-600 B.C.

Details

AN ETRUSCAN SHEET SILVER AND BRONZE BELT BUCKLE PLAQUE
CIRCA 650-600 B.C.
With central Artemis Potnia Theron, Mistress of Animals, wearing an ankle-length decorated robe, with head turned to the right, her arms outstretched to the sides, flanked on either side by leaping hounds and the dioscouri, wearing a belted short chiton, with one leg advanced, with Archaic smile and her hair tucked behind the ears and falling along the back, bound with a fillet, framed by a border of egg-and-dart
5 1/8 in. x 5 in. (6.5 cm. x 5 cm.)

Provenance

Päselt collection, Karlsruhe, Germany; acquired from Dr K. Deppert, Frankfurt am Main, July 1970.

Brought to you by

Georgiana Aitken

Check the condition report or get in touch for additional information about this

gaitken@christies.com +44 (0)20 7752 3002

If you wish to view the condition report of this lot, please sign in to your account.

View condition report

Lot Essay

For the Dioscuri, or Tinas Cliniar ("Sons of Tinia" (Zeus)), cf. R. D. De Puma, 'Tinas Cliniar', Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologicae Classicae III, Zurich and Munich, 1986, pp. 597-608. For a pair of similar silver belt buckles from the Vatican (inv.no. 13387-88) cf. LIMC op. cit., no. 33, the Dioscouroi with a goddess. De Puma explains "probably the earliest Eruscan representations of the Dioscuroi show them with the Potnia Theron....these depictions on mid-7th Century B.C. jewellery present a central goddess flanked by two identical youths who sometimes tame or kill animals. This hieratic motif has a long history in the near East and is part of the Orientalizing vocabulary of early Etruscan art".

More from Antiquities

View All