On view
Ancient Mediterranean Art
Pair of earrings with bull's heads,
3rd century BCE
Greek
Early Hellenistic
2018-105 a-b
These are all objects meant to decorate and show off the body. Displaying the malleability of gold, each piece of jewelry is delicately and intricately constructed. On one pair of earrings, sculpted Erotes, winged child figures associated with Aphrodite, the goddess of love, hang from thin wire chains attached to each wing and would have gently swayed back and forth as their wearer moved. On another pair of earrings, the heads of maenads, the female worshippers of Dionysos, are sculpted on top of bases composed of hundreds of individual small spheres of gold and carefully coiled hoops. Beyond adorning the body of living individuals, beautiful gold objects like these were also often funerary in function. Some examples, such as the wreath, with its extremely thin leaves and crown too small to be worn, were likely too fragile to have been used for embellishment, and were possibly created exclusively to accompany the deceased individual.
Information
Title
Pair of earrings with bull's heads
Dates
3rd century BCE
Medium
Gold
Dimensions
diam: 2.9 cm (1 1/8 in.)
Credit Line
Museum purchase, Classical Purchase Fund, in honor of Susan Love Lehre, Department Manager, Department of Art and Archaeology, 1998–2018
Object Number
2018-105 a-b
Place Made
Europe, Greece
Culture
Period
Type
Materials
Techniques
Subject
London market, January 1968; purchased by Michael Michaelides (1923-2015). Sold by Mrs. Michaelides at Chiswick Auctions, London, November 2015, lot 40. Rupert Wace, London, 2015-2018; purchased from Rupert Wace in 2018.
