Cleveland Museum of Art

Mirror with Engraved Scene: Two Female Figures

Date

330–300 BCE

Medium

bronze

Culture

Etruscan

Department

Greek and Roman Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Cast in one piece, this bronze mirror features a handle terminating in a stylized deer head. The front side of the disc, once highly polished and reflective, would have served as a mirror, while the reverse—now on display—features an engraved figural scene. Best observed with the aid of a line drawing , this shows two standing women, both draped and looking at one another. Without inscriptions, their identities remain uncertain, but the crescent overhead and the upright spear held by the righthand figure suggest that they may be the goddesses Artumes (Artemis) and Menerfa (Athena). The piriform shape of this mirror suggests that it was produced in Praeneste (modern Palestrina).

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