Pele (Greek: Peleus) surprises his bride, Thethis (Greek: Thetis), who is assisted by the nereid Calaina (Greek: Galene) as she gazes into a mirror. Between Peleus and Thetis, who later became the parents of Achilles, is an engraved toiletries box with lid ajar to reveal various toilet items, including a perfume applicator and two perfume vases. The superb quality of the engraving has assured this mirror's fame.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Bronze mirror
Period:Late Classical
Date:ca. 350 BCE
Culture:Etruscan
Medium:Bronze
Dimensions:diameter 6 3/8in. (16.2cm)
Classification:Bronzes
Credit Line:Rogers Fund, 1909
Accession Number:09.221.16
Said to have been found between Orvieto and Bolsena in 1877 (Fiorelli 1877, p. 261)
1877, found between Orvieto and Bolsena, on the estate of Count Bugiosanti of Orvieto; from 1877, collection of Count Bugiosanti of Orvieto; until 1883, collection of Alessandro Castellani, Rome (auctioned in 1884 in Rome); [with Francesco Martinetti, Rome]; [with Paul Hartwig, Rome]; acquired in 1909, purchased from Paul Hartwig.
Fiorelli, Giuseppe. 1877. "Notizie degli Scavi: Novembre." Notizie delgi Scavi di Antichità comunicate alla Reale accademia dei Lincei, : p. 261.
Duhn, F. von. 1878. "II. Scavi: Scavo in vininanza d'Orvieto." Bullettino dell'Instituto di Corrispondenza Archeologica, : p. 139.
1884. Catalogue des Objets d'Art Antiques du Moyen-Age et de la Renaissance dépendant de la Succession Alessandro Castellani et Dont le Vente Lieu à Rome, 17 Mars Au 10 Avril 1884. no. 189, p. 36.
Gerhard, Eduard, Adolf Klügmann, and Gustav Körte. 1897. Etruskische Speigel, Vol. 5. p. 123, Berlin: G. Reimer.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1910. "Department of Classical Art: The Accessions of 1909. II. Bronzes." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 5(4): pp. 95, 99, fig. 9.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1915. Greek, Etruscan and Roman Bronzes. no. 799, pp. 275–76, New York: Gilliss Press.
Bonfante, Larissa. 1997. Corpus Speculorum Etruscorum: U.S.A. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Vol. 3. no. 14, pp. 46–49, figs. 14a–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. 25–26, fig. 7, 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. 125–8.
DePuma, Richard. 2002. Antichità dall’Umbria a New York, Francesco Buranelli and Prof. Larissa Bonfante, eds. no. 6.7, pp. 277–80, Perugia: Editori Umbri Associati.
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. 2002. "Mirrors, Marriage, and Mysteries." Journal of Roman Archaeology. Supplementary Series., 47: p. 63, fig. 4.
Carpino, Alexandra Ann. 2003. Discs of Splendor: the Relief Mirrors of the Etruscans. pp. 56–7, fig. 82, pl. 82, Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
De Grummond, Nancy Thomson. 2006. Etruscan Myth, Sacred History, and Legend. pp. 193–94, 196, fig. 8.25, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.
Picón, Carlos A. 2007. Art of the Classical World in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Greece, Cyprus, Etruria, Rome no. 370, pp. 312, 477, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
de Puma, Richard Daniel. 2013. Etruscan Art in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. no. 6.1, pp. 8, 172, 173, 242, back cover, New Haven and London: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Lutz, Albert. 2019. Spiegel. Der Mensch im Wilderschein. no. 64, p. 105, Zürich: Wienand Verlag.
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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.
