Advanced Search
Advanced Search

Shield with a head of a Dioskouros

Greek
Hellenistic Period
late 4th–first half of 3rd century B.C.
Findspot: Greece, Euboia, Eretria, Tomb of the Erotes

Medium/Technique Terracotta, gilded and painted
Dimensions Diameter: 8.8 cm (3 7/16 in.)
Credit Line Catharine Page Perkins Fund
Accession Number97.330
NOT ON VIEW
ClassificationsSculpture

DescriptionRound shield. Head of a youth wearing a flat traveller's hat (petasos), between two stars, only faint impressions of which still remain. The youth is probably one of the Dioskouroi (Kastor and Pollux). Faint traces of red on field and gold on hair and rim. Hat white. Three sections of rim missing; two large holes in field.
Objects in the MFA from the Tomb of the Erotes include 97.290-97.345, 98.790-98.794, 98.798, 98.893, 99.438, and 21.1213.
ProvenanceBy 1897: with Edward Perry Warren (according to Warren's records: [one of] 28 round shields and oblong shields sent with the Erotes as from the same grave [at Eretria]); 1897: purchased by MFA from Edward Perry Warren for $ 25,000.00 (this figure is the total price for MFA 97.285-97.442 and 97.1104)