Lot 11
11
A GREEK BRONZE CHALCIDIAN HELMET
A GREEK BRONZE CHALCIDIAN HELMET
A GREEK BRONZE CHALCIDIAN HELMET
A GREEK BRONZE CHALCIDIAN HELMET
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A GREEK BRONZE CHALCIDIAN HELMET

MAGNA GRAECIA, LATE CLASSICAL TO EARLY HELLENISTIC PERIOD, CIRCA 350-250 B.C.

Details
A GREEK BRONZE CHALCIDIAN HELMET
MAGNA GRAECIA, LATE CLASSICAL TO EARLY HELLENISTIC PERIOD, CIRCA 350-250 B.C.
12 1⁄8 in. (30.7 cm.) high
Provenance
Axel Guttmann (1944-2001), Berlin (Inv. no. AG452/H144).
Antike Helme der Sammlung Axel Guttmann, Auktion 49, Hermann Historica, Munich, 19 October 2005, lot 158.
with Royal-Athena Galleries, New York, acquired from the above (Art of the Ancient World, vol. XVIII, no. 80).
Christian Levett, London, acquired from the above on behalf of the Mougins Museum of Classical Art, 2008.
Literature
M. Burns, "Graeco-Italic Militaria," in M. Merrony, ed., Mougins Museum of Classical Art, Mougins, 2011, p. 216, fig. 103.
R. Hixenbaugh, Ancient Greek Helmets: A Complete Guide and Catalog, New York, 2019, p. 488, no. X334.
Exhibited
Mougins Museum of Classical Art, 2011-2023 (Inv. no. MMoCA175).

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Lot Essay

This helmet features a carinated ridge below the spherical dome, a slightly flaring neck-guard, frontal-curving cheek-guards and three tubular plume-holders riveted to the crown. Noticeably absent from this South Italian variation is the nose-guard.

Feathers were popular embellishments on Chalcidian helmets, intended to intimidate enemies and show an association with Ares, the god of war, who is often depicted wearing a crested helmet. Both Livy and Polybius make reference to aigrettes (horsehair crests and/or feathers) and their ability to create fear in battle (see pp. 218-221 in Burns, op. cit.). This helmet type is depicted frequently on South Italian vases, as seen worn by an Italic warrior on a Campanian hydria in The Metropolitan Museum of Art (see no. 92 in M. Mayo, ed., The Art of South Italy: Vases from Magna Graecia). For a similar helmet, see no. X350 in Hixenbaugh, op. cit.

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