AN ETRUSCAN BRONZE CISTA HANDLE

CIRCA 350-325 B.C.

Details

AN ETRUSCAN BRONZE CISTA HANDLE
CIRCA 350-325 B.C.
Cast in the form of a maenad and a satyr with their arms intertwined, their hands resting on each other's shoulders, both depicted nude but for shoes, the pair antithetically inclined, the maenad standing with her weight on her left leg, the right relaxed and bent at the knee, her right arm akimbo, the satyr standing with his weight on his right leg, his left relaxed and bent at the knee, his left arm akimbo, each with short upswept hair bound in a broad fillet or open-topped hat, the satyr with a short tail and pointed ears, both standing on separate rectangular plinths with central perforations for attachment to the cista lid
4¾ in. (12.1 cm.) high

Provenance

Private Collection, Geneva.
with Royal-Athena Galleries, New York, 1989 (Gods and Mortals, no. 53).

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. 88-91.

Lot Essay

For a cista with a similar handle, from Praeneste, now in the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, see fig. XVI in Kozloff and Mitten, The Gods Delight, The Human Figure in Classical Bronze Two examples, also from Praeneste, have more elaborate handles with three figures standing with arms intertwined, one with a youthful Dionysos with two satyrs, now in the Villa Giulia, and one with a bearded Dionysos with two satyrs, now in the Louvre, nos. 172 and 173 in Haynes, Etruscan Bronzes.

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