Terracotta shield

Terracotta shield

Description:

The shield is decorated with a scale pattern and has a painted projection in the center. During the Archaic period, clay models of shields were offered in sanctuaries and tombs. This practice speaks for the rarity of bronze, out of which an actual shield would have been made.


diameter 6 1/2 in. (16.5 cm)

Period:

Archaic II

Date:

600 - 480 BC

Collection:

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Provenance:

References:

Cesnola, Luigi Palma di. 1885. A Descriptive Atlas of the Cesnola Collection of Cypriote Antiquities in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Vol. 1. pl. LXXXIX.774, Boston: James R. Osgood and Company.Cesnola, Luigi Palma di. 1894. A Descriptive Atlas of the Cesnola Collection of Cypriote Antiquities in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Vol. 2. pl. LXXXIX.774, Boston: James R. Osgood and Company.Myres, John L. 1914. Handbook of the Cesnola Collection of Antiquities from Cyprus. no. 554, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.Myres, John L. 1933. "The Amathus Bowl: A long-Lost Masterpiece of Oriental Engraving." The Journal of Hellenic Studies, 53(1): p. 36 n. 37.Karageorghis, Vassos. 1996. "The Cypro-archaic period monsters, animals and miscellanea." The Coroplastic Art of Ancient Cyprus, Vol. 6. no. Y.a.8, p. 86, pl. XLIX.5, Nicosia: Foundation Anastasios G. Leventis.Karageorghis, Vassos, Joan Mertens, and Marice E. Rose. 2000. Ancient Art from Cyprus: The Cesnola Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. no. 252, pp. 156-57, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.Karageorghis, Vassos, Gloria Merker, and Joan R. Mertens. 2016. The Cesnola Collection of Cypriot Art : Terracottas. no. 263, pp. 151-52, Online Publication, [CD-Rom 2004], New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Accession Number:

74.51.1260