Getty Museum

Disk Earring with a Figure of Eros

Date

225–175 B.C.

Medium

Gold and pearls

Culture

Greek

Department

Jewelry

Institution

Getty Museum

Eros pendant earring fashioned from more than a hundred components. Construction was organized into three segments: bull’s head, rosette, and Eros pendant, connected and stabilized by a hoop formed from gold wire. The bull’s head at the top is constructed from two repoussé halves attached at their lower edge to a collar decorated with beaded and block-twisted wire. Beneath this collar is set a pearl, itself supported from below by a similarly decorated collar. The pendant figure of a fluttering winged Eros was formed by soldering two sheet-gold halves together. With granulated bandoliers and golden cloaks draping behind, the pudgy figure hold ritual offering plates in one hand and upraised torches in the other. Every element has been individually soldered onto the figures. The Eros is suspended from a gold rosette disk consisting of rings of decorative wires (strip twisted and block twisted) with the central flower formed by gold sheet cut into individual petals.

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