The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 5, 2023

Mirror with Engraved Scene: Two Female Figures

330–300 BC

Italy, Etruscan, 4th century BC

Bronze

Overall: 36 cm (14 3/16 in.)

Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust 1916.2012

Location

102D Pre-Roman

Fun Fact

The piriform shape of this mirror suggests that it was produced in Praeneste (modern Palestrina).

Description

Cast in one piece, this bronze mirror features a handle terminating in a stylized deer head. The front side of the disc, once highly polished and reflective, would have served as a mirror, while the reverse—now on display—features an engraved figural scene. Best observed with the aid of a line drawing, this shows two standing women, both draped and looking at one another. Without inscriptions, their identities remain uncertain, but the crescent overhead and the upright spear held by the righthand figure suggest that they may be the goddesses Artumes (Artemis) and Menerfa (Athena).

Citations
De Puma, Richard Daniel. "A Fourth Century Praenestine Mirror with Telephos and Orestes." Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archaeologischen Instituts Roemische Abteilung 87 (1980): 5-28. Mentioned, illustrated (Disc section) pp. 25-27.
De Puma, Richard Daniel. "A Fourth Century Praenestine Mirror with Telephos and Orestes." Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archaeologischen Instituts Roemische Abteilung 87 (1980): 5-28. Mentioned, illustrated (Disc section) pp. 25-27.
De Puma, Richard Daniel. "Greek Myths on Three Etruscan Mirrors in Cleveland." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 70, no. 7 (1983): 290-302. Discussed pp. 295-296, figs. 13-15. www.jstor.org
De Puma, Richard Daniel. "Greek Myths on Three Etruscan Mirrors in Cleveland." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 70, no. 7 (1983): 290-302. Discussed pp. 295-296, figs. 13-15. www.jstor.org
De Puma, Richard Daniel. Corpus Speculorum Etruscorum, U.S.A. volume 1: Midwestern Collections. Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1987. p. 27, Figs. 13a-d (cat. 13).
De Puma, Richard Daniel. Corpus Speculorum Etruscorum, U.S.A. volume 1: Midwestern Collections. Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1987. p. 27, Figs. 13a-d (cat. 13).
Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1916.2012