Handle Attachment with Opposing Horse Heads

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Artist
Name	Unknown
Basic Info
Period	Iron Age
Created in	Ancient & Byzantine World, Europe
Century	7th-4th century BCE
Culture	Italic
Dimensions	4.7 x 10.6 x 1.8 cm (1 7/8 x 4 3/16 x 11/16 in.)
Harvard Museum
Department	Department of Ancient and Byzantine Art & Numismatics
Division	Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact	am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu

Context

Opposing horse heads decorate the ends of this handle attachment. The horse heads are solid and very schematic, with pointed ears and a slight, raised crest to indicate the mane. Raised bumps represent eyes, but no other details are added. The attachment portion is a half cylinder, open on the back to fit onto the rim of a vessel. Three raised, vertical bands decorate the front of the cylinder, one under each horse head and one in the center. There is a single perforation through each end. 
 
Very similar handle attachments are in the Badischen Landesmuseum Karlsruhe (1). Attachments of this type were fitted onto large bowls, and a wire handle for the bowl was affixed to the attachment plate at the holes under each horse’s head.
 
NOTES:
 
1. See F. Jurgeit, Die etruskischen und italischen Bronzen sowie Gegenstände aus Eisen, Blei und Leder im Badischen Landesmuseum Karlsruhe, Terra Italia 5 (Pisa, 1999) 282-83, nos. 462-66, pls. 142-43.
 
Lisa M. Anderson

TechnicalDetails

Chemical Composition

Technical Observations

The patina is green with spots of underlying red; brown burial accretions are also present. The corrosion layers obscure much of the surface, which has little fine detail.
 
The long section between the horse heads is hollow and open on the back. The horse heads are solid cast. The soft, somewhat irregular, shapes indicate the object was cast from a model made by working directly in the wax. The holes at both ends of the handle section are irregular and were probably made in the wax model.
 
Henry Lie (submitted 2012)

Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Carol Hebb and Alan Feldbaum