Basin Handle

1 of 1

Artist
Name	Unknown
Basic Info
Period	Classical period
Created in	Ancient & Byzantine World, Europe, Etruria
Century	5th century BCE
Culture	Etruscan
Dimensions	8.5 x 12 x 1.4 cm (3 3/8 x 4 3/4 x 9/16 in.)
Harvard Museum
Department	Department of Ancient and Byzantine Art & Numismatics
Division	Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact	am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu

Context

This angular, C-shaped handle is in the form of a rectangle with a molded attachment on the fourth side (1). The handle is thick, solid, and rectangular in section. It is decorated with several lines of rope and egg-and-dart ornaments. The attachment is elaborately decorated with three inverted palmettes, six volutes, and two lion heads. The inverted palmettes are evenly spaced at the ends and center; the straight fronds have a clamshell-like appearance. The volutes decorate the spaces between the palmettes, and a rope ornament runs along the top of the attachment. The lion heads at each end are flattened and may represent the lion skin of Herakles, a popular motif in Etruscan art.
 
NOTES:
 
1. Compare M. P. Bini, G. Caramella, and S. Buccioli, I bronzi etruschi e romani, Materiali del Museo archeologico nazionale di Tarquinia 13 (Rome, 1995) 168, no. 197, pl. 68.1.a-b; and R. De Puma, Etruscan Art in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New Haven, 2013), 238, no. 6.84. 
 
Lisa M. Anderson

TechnicalDetails

Chemical Composition

Technical Observations

The patina is dark green with areas of red and bright green. The surface is well preserved in most areas. 
 
The object is a solid, indirect lost-wax cast. It is possible that the upper and lower halves were cast as separate wax models and then joined in the wax prior to casting the handle in metal: the lower acanthus leaf section curves to mate with the curve of the basin, while the handle above it is completely planer. The beaded edges of the handle appear to have been created entirely by the mold used to cast the wax model. The finer and slightly sharper shapes of the rope border adjacent to the beading were cold worked by punching an elongated point into the metal at close intervals. The leaf and lion mask were cast and then finished with a minimal amount of cold working. The back of the leaf section, which joined to the vessel, bears a thin residue of a white metal, probably lead.
 
Henry Lie (submitted 2011)

Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Transfer from the Alice Corinne McDaniel Collection, Department of the Classics, Harvard University