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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1987.135.56
Title
Fibula
Classification
Jewelry
Work Type
pin, fibula
Date
5th-4th century BCE
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Europe
Period
Classical period to Hellenistic
Culture
Italic
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/311857

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Copper alloy
Technique
Cast and hammered
Dimensions
6.8 x 3.1 x 1.3 cm (2 11/16 x 1 1/4 x 1/2 in.)
Technical Details

Technical Observations: The patina is light to dark green. There are bubble-like malachite formations on the remaining portion of the catchplate. There is a thin layer of burial accretions overall. The fibula is very corroded; the cross-section at the pin break shows a layer of malachite over a thicker layer of cuprite, with very little unmineralized metal left. The pin and the plate portion of the catchplate have broken off and are both missing.


Julie Wolfe

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Jerry Nagler
Accession Year
1987
Object Number
1987.135.56
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 fibula is missing its pin. Two to three coils of the spring are present. The bow expands from the spring into a wide, flat, lozenge-shape with bands of decoration on the edges (possibly beaded) and is slightly concave on the exterior. The bow narrows as it approaches the foot. The foot is flat, widening sharply into a rectangle after the end of the bow, and it has some additional molded decoration on the edges. A slight edge on the underside of the foot indicates where the catchplate had been. The foot expands into a cube-sphere-knob terminal (1).

NOTES:

1. It is difficult to attribute this fibula to a type, but it is perhaps comparable to A. Dionisio, “Le fibule tra il V e il I secolo A.C.,” in Il Museo delle Antichità Etrusche e Italiche 3: I bronzi della collezione Gorga, ed. M. G. Benedettini (Rome, 2012) 156-91, esp. 165, no. 474, pl. 28.

Lisa M. Anderson

Publication History

  • Julie Wolfe, "Analysis of Iron Age Bronze Fibulae from Southern Italy in the Collection of the Harvard University Art Museums" (thesis (certificate in conservation), Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies, June 1998), Unpublished,

Subjects and Contexts

  • Ancient Bronzes

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