Gold fibula with rosettes and other ornaments from a tomb group allegedly from Vulci, one of the richest and most impressive sets of Etruscan jewelry ever found.
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Title:Gold fibula (safety pin) with sphinx
Period:Late Archaic
Date:early 5th century BCE
Culture:Etruscan
Medium:Gold
Dimensions:Other: 1 15/16 in. (4.9 cm)
Classification:Gold and Silver
Credit Line:Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1940
Object Number:40.11.10
From a tomb in Vulci (Camposcala), Italy (Lenormant 1834, p. 246; Campanari
1835, p. 203)
1832 or 1833, excavated in Vulci (Camposcala); [with Domenico Campanari, Rome]; 1834, acquired by Vicomte Gustave-Adolphe Beugnot (1799-1861), purchased from Domenico Campanari; 1834, acquired by Baron de Rougemont de Löwenberg, possibly as a gift, from Vicomte Beugnot; collection of baron de Rougemont de Löwenberg and descendants, Neuchâtel, Switzerland; [by 1930 and until 1940, with Charles Albert de Burlet, Basel, Switzerland]; acquired in 1940, purchased from Charles Albert de Burlet, Basel, Switzerland.
Lenormant, Charles. 1834. "Collier étrusque." Annales de l'Institut de Correspondance Archéologique, 6: pp. 243–67.
Instituto di Corrispondenza Archeologica. 1834-1838. Monumenti Inediti, Vol. 2. pl. VII, Roma.
Campanari, Domenico. 1835. "Sopra alcuni rari sepolcri volcenti." Bullettino dell'Instituto di Corrispondenza Archeologica, : p. 203.
Le duc de Luynes. 1836. "Casque de Vulci." Instituto di corrispondenza archeologica di Roma: Nouvelles annales, : p. 51.
Blümner, Hugo. 1885. "Das Kunstgewerbe im Altertum." Geschichte des kunstgewerbes in einzeldarstellungen. p. 147, fig. 107, Leipzig: G. Freytag.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1940. Handbook of the Etruscan Collection. p. 33, fig. 106, New York: Marchbanks Press.
Grancsay, Stephen V. 1940. "The Art of the Jeweler: A Special Exhibition." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 35(11): p. 217.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1940. "Four Notable Acquisitions of the Metropolitan Museum of Art." American Journal of Archaeology, 44 (4): pp. 434–39, fig. 7.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1940. "A Set of Etruscan Jewelry." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 35(11): pp. 223–5, fig. 5.
Sundwall, Johannes. 1943. Die älteren Italischen Fibeln. no. 2a, p. 230, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter & Co.
Oliver, Andrew Jr. 1966. "Greek, Roman, and Etruscan Jewelry." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 24(9): pp. 280–81, figs. 23–24.
Guzzo, Pier Giovanni. 1973. Le Fibule in Etruria dal VI al I secolo, Studi e Materiali di Etruscologia e Antichità italiche, Vol. 11. no. 12, p. 28, pl. V, Florence: Sansoni.
Cristofani, Mauro and Marina Cristofani Martelli. 1983. "Vulci: il complesso di oreficerie del Metropolitan Museum." L'Oro degli Etruschi. pp. 158–59, 289–90, no. 129, Novara: Istituto Geografico De Agostini.
Steiner, Ann. 1993. "The Meaning of Repetition: Visual Redundancy on Archaic Athenian Vases." Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, 108: p. 213 n. 48.
Picón, Carlos A. 2007. Art of the Classical World in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Greece, Cyprus, Etruria, Rome no. 344, pp. 296, 473, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
de Puma, Richard Daniel. 2013. Etruscan Art in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. no. 7.10, pp. 10, 30, 255–56, New Haven and London: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Campbell, Virginia L. 2017. Ancient Rome. p. 95, New York: Thames and Hudson.
Mazet, Christian. 2020. "Les antiques de Gustave-Adolphe Beugnot (1799-1861). Histoire et fortune d’une collection oubliée." Anabases, 32: pp. 107–31, fig. 5.
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