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Greek Mirror

CultureEtruscan
Date465-450 B.C.E.
MediumBronze
DimensionsOverall: 10 1/8 inches (25.73 cm)
Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust
Object number60-84
On View
On view
Gallery Location
  • 103
Collections
Exhibition History

University of Pennsylvania Museum, 1958-1959.

 

Meisterwerke griechischer Kunst, Kunsthalle, Basel, June 18-September 13, 1960, no. 266.

Gallery Label
The disk was originally highly polished to provide a clear, reflective surface. The youthful girl supporting it may be just a maiden. Alternatively, and as would be particularly appropriate, she may be Aphrodite, the goddess of love. The two winged creatures fluttering over her head are Erotes (cupids).
Provenance

Found in Italy, by 1958 [1];

 

With Hesperia Art, Philadelphia, by 1958-1960;

 

Purchased from Hesperia Art by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1960.

 

NOTES:

 

[1] According to Lenore O. Keene Congdon, Caryatid Mirrors of Ancient Greece: Technical, Stylistic and Historical Considerations of an Archaic and Early Classical Bronze Series (Mainz am Rhein: Philipp von Zabern, 1981), 169.

Published References

Karl Schefold, Meisterwerke griechischer Kunst, exh. cat. (Basel: Kunsthalle Basel, 1960), no. v 266.

 

Karl Schefold, Meisterwerke griechischer Kunst, exh. cat. (Basel: Benno Schwabe and Co. Verlag, 1960), 227, no. 266, ill. 267.   

 

Bulletin (The Nelson Gallery and Atkins Museum) 3, no. 3 (1961): 10.

 

Lenore O. Keene Congdon, Greek Caryatid Mirrors: Technical, Stylistic and Historical Considerations of an Archaic and Early Classical Bronze Series (PhD diss., Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 1961), 55-56, 80, 151, 218, 255-56, no. 54.

 

Ross E. Taggart and George L. McKenna, eds., Handbook of the Collections in The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri, vol. 1, Art of the Occident, 5th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1973), 35.

 

Renate Tölle-Kastenbein, Frühklassische Peplosfiguren Originale (Mainz am Rhein: Philipp von Zabern, 1980), 24, no. 2d, plate 11, fig. 1a.

 

Lenore O. Keene Congdon, Caryatid Mirrors of Ancient Greece: Technical, Stylistic and Historical Considerations of an Archaic and Early Classical Bronze Series (Mainz am Rhein: Philipp von Zabern, 1981), 44, 65, 95, 102-03, 105, 119, 169-70, no. 58, plate 53, figs. 58 a, b.
Information about a particular artwork or image, including provenance information, is based upon historic information and may not be currently accurate or complete. Research on artwork and images is an ongoing process, and the information about a particular artwork or image may not reflect the most current information available to the Museum. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about a particular artwork or image, please e-mail provenance@nelson-atkins.org.


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