Lot Essay
This mirror is engraved with the toilette of Malavisch, with the central seated figure surrounded by four other draped and nude females including Thetis, Turan (Aphrodite) on the left and the Etruscan goddess Thalna on the right, who gently holds her face. The name Malavisch is inscribed on her stool and the names of the four other figures are above their heads. A boy with closely cropped hair sits in the exergue grasping two snakes.
For a discussion on toilette scenes, see N. Thomson de Grummond (ed.), A Guide to Etruscan Mirrors, Tallahassee, 1982, pp. 177-179, and in particular a similar mirror with Malavisch in the British Museum, pl. 95. According to de Grummond, a later Hellenistic date can be given to the above example due to the nudity of the attendant figures.
For a discussion on toilette scenes, see N. Thomson de Grummond (ed.), A Guide to Etruscan Mirrors, Tallahassee, 1982, pp. 177-179, and in particular a similar mirror with Malavisch in the British Museum, pl. 95. According to de Grummond, a later Hellenistic date can be given to the above example due to the nudity of the attendant figures.