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Thin band with stamped decoration: battle of the gods and the giants
Italic, Etruscan
Archaic Period
About 500 B.C.
Medium/Technique
Bronze
Dimensions
Width x length: 6.3 x 24.7 cm (2 1/2 x 9 3/4 in.)
Credit Line
Museum purchase with funds donated by contribution
Accession Number01.7528
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsAncient Greece and Rome
ClassificationsFurniture
Catalogue Raisonné
Greek, Etruscan, & Roman Bronzes (MFA), no. 688; Sculpture in Stone and Bronze (MFA), p. 127 (additional published references).
DescriptionA scene of battle between the gods and the giants is stamped on a thin band. There are eight figures of gods and giants besides the animals. From the left, an armored god (Zeus) in a four-horse chariot with a charioteer spears a running giant. In the central scene the goddess Athena has wrenched the right arm off a fire-breathing giant, and at the right Herakles, wearing his lion's skin, brandishes his club at two fleeing giants. A border of large dots is above, and a wave pattern runs from left to right below. The figures are stamped from behind. The left side border is clearly finished, but also the left one is similarly finished even if mostly broken away. Pieces missing. Slightly corroded; copper colored.
ProvenanceBy date unknown: with Edward Perry Warren (according to Warren's records: Bought in Rome: found in a tomb in the necropolis of Bomarzo); purchased by MFA from Edward Perry Warren, December 1901