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Repoussé plaque with a centaur holding a fawn
Greek, East Greek
Orientalizing Period
660–620 B.C.
Medium/Technique
Electrum
Dimensions
Height x width: 5.8 x 3.4 cm (2 5/16 x 1 5/16 in.)
Credit Line
Henry Lillie Pierce Fund
Accession Number99.388
CollectionsJewelry, Ancient Greece and Rome
ClassificationsJewelry / Adornment
Catalogue Raisonné
Highlights: Classical Art (MFA), p. 158.
DescriptionThis plaque depicts a centaur grasping a fawn by the neck. The centaur has an entirely human front half, with the stomach and back legs of a horse attached to his back. Though all of his legs are represented in profile, his torso and face are shown frontally. His long, striated hair falls down in front of his shoulders. He holds his right hand up in a fist against his chest, just above his belt, while he raises his left hand up as if to display his prey. Between the underside of the prey and the braided decorative border are two small rosettes. The entire pictorial field is surrounded by a braided border. The bottom edge is further decorated with a series of holes, between which are perforations that hold chains used for suspending small golden balls. At top, above a row of decorative darts, part of a pierced tab survives, which may have once enabled the entire piece to be pinned to cloth. The lower corners of the plaque are now missing.
ProvenanceBy date unknown: W. H. Forman Collection; inherited from him by Mrs. Burt and then, about 1889, by A. H. Browne; by 1899: with Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, 13 Wellington Strand, London, W.C. (sale of the Forman collection, June 19-22, lot 397, partial; said to have come from Kameiros); 1899: with Edward Perry Warren; 1899: purchased by MFA from Edward Perry Warren for $ 32,500.00 (this is the total price for MFA 99.338-99.542)