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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1920.44.246
Title
Bow of a Navicella Fibula
Classification
Jewelry
Work Type
pin, fibula
Date
late 8th-7th century BCE
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Europe, Etruria
Period
Orientalizing period
Culture
Italic
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/304036

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Copper alloy
Technique
Cast, lost-wax process
Dimensions
2.3 x 2.1 cm (7/8 x 13/16 in.)
Technical Details

Technical Observations: The patina is patchy green, red, and blue corrosion over a pale green and black surface; there are tan burial deposits on the interior. The spring, catchplate, and pin are missing. The fibula bow was cast, and there is some evidence of finishing work after casting.


Carol Snow (submitted 2002)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Miss Elizabeth Gaskell Norton, Boston, MA and Miss Margaret Norton, Cambridge, MA (by 1920), gift; to the Fogg Art Museum, 1920.

Note: The Misses Norton were daughters of Charles Elliot Norton (1827-1908).

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of the Misses Norton
Accession Year
1920
Object Number
1920.44.246
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Descriptions

Published Catalogue Text: Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes at the Harvard Art Museums
This fragmentary navicella fibula preserves only the bow; the catchplate, spring, and pin are all missing. The small bow is hollow on the underside. Spherical knobs are present on either side of the widest part of the bow (1).

NOTES:

1. Compare A. Naso, I bronzi etruschi e italici del Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum, Kataloge vor- und frühgeschichtlicher Altertümer 33 (Mainz, 2003) 263-65, nos. 483-84 and 486-87, fig. 170, pl. 104; and V. Palone, “Le fibule navicella,” in Il Museo delle Antichità Etrusche e Italiche 3: I bronzi della collezione Gorga, ed. M. G. Benedettini (Rome, 2012) 98-125, esp. 120-21, no. 375, pl. 20.

Lisa M. Anderson

Subjects and Contexts

  • Ancient Bronzes

Related Objects

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu