All the figures are identified by inscriptions engraved on the rim. They read, from left to right, Esplace (Latin: Asclepius), Prumathe (Latin: Prometheus), Menrva (Latin: Minerva), and Hercle (Latin: Hercules). This is one of only three preserved depictions of the story of Prometheus Unbound in Etruscan art. In addition, it is the only certain depiction of Asclepius, the god of healing, in Etruscan art.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Bronze mirror
Period:Hellenistic
Date:early 3rd century BCE
Culture:Etruscan
Medium:Bronze
Dimensions:H. 11 in. (27.9 cm); diameter 5 11/16 in. (14.5 cm)
Classification:Bronzes
Credit Line:Rogers Fund, 1903
Object Number:03.24.3
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1915. Greek, Etruscan and Roman Bronzes. no. 817, pp. 180–81, 281–82, New York: Gilliss Press.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1940. Handbook of the Etruscan Collection. p. 53, fig. 162, New York: Marchbanks Press.
Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC). 1988. Vol. 4: Eros-Herakles. "Esplace," p. 24, no. 1, pl. 14, Zürich: Artemis Verlag.
Manheim, Ralph. 1995[1963]. Prometheus: Archetypal Image of Human Existence. p. 108, pl. XzziV, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Bonfante, Larissa. 1997. New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Corpus Speculorun Etruscorum, Vol. U.S.A. 3. no. 11, pp. 40–43, figs. 11a–d, Rome: L'Erma di Bretschneider.
Bonfante, Larissa. 1997. Corpus Speculorum Etruscorum: U.S.A. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Vol. 3. no. 11, pp. 40–43, figs. 11a–d, Rome: L'Erma di Bretschneider.
Bonfante, Larissa. 2000. "Alcuni specchi etruschi nel Metropolitan Museum of Art." Aspetti e problemi della produzione degli specchi etruschi figurati: atti dell'incontro internazionale di studio, Roma 2-4 maggio 1997, Maria Donatella Gentili, ed. pp. 23–25, fig. 6, Rome: Aracne.
Wiman, Ingela M. B. 2000-2001. "Review of Etruscan Mirrors, by L. Bonfante." Opuscula Romana, Skrifter utgivna av Svenska institutet i Rom: pp. 125–28.
Höckmann, Ursula. 2002. "Reviewed Work: Corpus Speculorum Etruscorum. U.S.A. 3: New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Larissa Bonfante." Gnomon, 74(1): pp. 43–46.
De Grummond, Nancy Thomson and Prof. Larissa Bonfante. 2006. The Religion of the Etruscans. p. 20, fig, II.6, Austin: University of Texas Press.
De Grummond, Nancy Thomson. 2006. Etruscan Myth, Sacred History, and Legend. pp. 186–87, fig. 8.15, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.
Bonfante, Larissa. 2006. "Etruscan Inscriptions and Etruscan Religion." The Religion of the Etruscans, Nancy Thomson De Grummond and Erika Simon, eds. p. 20, fig. II.16, Austin: University of Texas Press.
Picón, Carlos A. 2007. Art of the Classical World in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Greece, Cyprus, Etruria, Rome no. 371, pp. 313, 477, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
de Puma, Richard Daniel. 2013. Etruscan Art in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. no. 6.40, pp. 173, 200–1, New Haven and London: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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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.