Bronze tripods and other vessel stands from Cyprus represent some of the finest metalwork produced in the eastern Mediterranean at the end of the Late Bronze Age. Some were cast in one piece; others, such as this one, were composed of pieces cast or worked separately and fastened together by means of hard-soldering. The decoration shows a blend of Mycenaean Greek and Near Eastern elements. The stands themselves have a wide distribution, having been found on Cyprus, Crete, and the Cyclades, as well as in mainland Greece, Sardinia, and Italy. Ancient repairs to this stand's rim are one indication that it was a valuable, treasured item that may have been passed from one generation to another.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Bronze rod tripod
Period:Late Bronze Age
Date:ca. 1250–1050 BCE
Culture:Cypriot
Medium:Bronze
Dimensions:H. 14 3/4 in. (37.5 cm) diameter of rim 9 3/4 in. (24.8 cm)
Classification:Bronzes
Credit Line:The Cesnola Collection, Purchased by subscription, 1874–76
Accession Number:74.51.5684
From Kourion, Cyprus (Cesnola, Atlas III, pl. XLIV, 4)
Before 1874, excavated by Luigi Palma di Cesnola at Kourion, Cyprus; until 1874, collection of L.P. di Cesnola; acquired in 1874, purchased from L.P. di Cesnola.
Myres, John L. 1914. Handbook of the Cesnola Collection of Antiquities from Cyprus. no. 4704, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1915. Greek, Etruscan and Roman Bronzes. no. 1180, pp. 345–48, New York: Gilliss Press.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1953. Handbook of the Greek Collection. pp. 17, 170, pl. 10a, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Raubitschek, Isabelle K. 1978. "Cypriot Bronze Lampstands in the Cesnola Collection of the Stanford University Museum of Art." The Proceedings of the Xth International Congress of Classical Archaeology : Ankara-İzmir, 23-30/IX/1973. p. 699, pl. 215, 1, Ankara: Turk Tarih Kurumu Basimeri.
Catling, H. W. 1984. "Workshop and Heirloom: Prehistoric Bronze Stands in the East Mediterranean." Report of the Department of Antiquities Cyprus (RDAC), : pp. 75, 83, pls. X, XVI:1.
Matthäus, Hartmut. 1985. Metallgefässe und Gefässuntersätze der Bronzezeit, der geometrischen und archaischen Periode auf Cypern: mit einem Anhang der bronzezeitlichen Schwertfunde auf Cypern, Prähistorische Bronzefunde, Abteilung II Bd. 8. cat. 694, pp. 303, 376, pl. 95, 691, München: Beck.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1987. Greece and Rome. no. 3, p. 16
, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Karageorghis, Vassos, Joan Mertens, and Marice E. Rose. 2000. Ancient Art from Cyprus: The Cesnola Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. no. 96, pp. 60–61, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Lightfoot, Christopher S. 2000. "The New Cypriot Galleries at The Metropolitan Museum of Art." Minerva, 11(3): fig. 5, 19.
Schorsch, Deborah and Elizabeth Hendrix. 2003. "Ambition and competence in Late Bronze Age Cyprus." Report of the Department of Antiquities Cyprus (RDAC), : pp. 57, 59, figs. 1, 4–8.
Schorsch, Deborah. 2003. "The production of relief ornament on Cypriot bronze castings of the late Bronze Age." Archaeometallurgy in Europe, 2. figs. 1,4–8,10,, Milan: Historical Metallurgy Society.
Picón, Carlos A. 2007. Art of the Classical World in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Greece, Cyprus, Etruria, Rome no. 269, pp. 232, 459, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Aruz, Joan, Kim Benzel, and Jean M. Evans. 2009. Beyond Babylon: Art, Trade, and Diplomacy in the Second Millennium B.C. p. 393, fig. 125, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Koehl, Robert. 2013. Amilla. The Quest for Excellence. Studies Presented to Guenter Kopcke in Celebration of His 75th Birthday pp. 301–02, 304-05, figs. 19.15, 19.16. 19.19, 19.20-.23, Philadelphia: INSTAP Academic Press.
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The Museum's collection of Greek and Roman art comprises more than 30,000 works ranging in date from the Neolithic period to the time of the Roman emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity in A.D. 312.
