The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 25, 2024

Mirror with Engraved Scene: Two Female Figures

Mirror with Engraved Scene: Two Female Figures

330–300 BCE
bronze
Overall: 36 cm (14 3/16 in.)
Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust 1916.2012
Location: 102D Pre-Roman

Did You Know?

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).
  • 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).
  • {{cite web|title=Mirror with Engraved Scene: Two Female Figures|url=false|author=|year=330–300 BCE|access-date=25 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1916.2012