This is one of a half-dozen ornaments of special shapes still in existence; four belong to a group found on the island of Melos. All bear a combination of figural heads and rosettes embellished with granulation and filigree. Their purpose is unclear. They may have been sewn to a cloth or leather backing.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Gold rosette with the head of a griffin
Period:Archaic
Date:ca. 630–620 BCE
Culture:Greek, Rhodian ?
Medium:Gold
Dimensions:H. 7/8 in. (2.2 cm) diameter 1 5/8 in. (4.1 cm)
Classification:Gold and Silver
Credit Line:Rogers Fund, 1912
Accession Number:12.229.24
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1917. Handbook of the Classical Collection. p. 84, fig. 50, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1927. Handbook of the Classical Collection. pp. 326, 328, fig. 229, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Alexander, Christine. 1928. Jewelry: The Art of the Goldsmith in Classical Times as Illustrated in the Museum Collection. p. 46, fig. 99, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1930. Handbook of the Classical Collection. pp. 328, 330, fig. 232, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1953. Handbook of the Greek Collection. pp. 156, 288, pl. 128d, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Bandinelli, Ranuccio Bianchi. 1958. Enciclopedia dell'Arte Antica, Classica e Orientale, Vol. 2. p. 164, fig. 250, Rome: Instituto della Enciclopedia Italiana.
Oliver, Andrew Jr. 1966. "Greek, Roman, and Etruscan Jewelry." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 24(9): p. 270, fig. 4.
Oliver, Andrew Jr. 1968. "Lydia." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 26(5): p. 270, fig. 4.
Harper, Prudence. 1971. "Origin and Influence–Cultural Contacts: Egypt, the Ancient Near East, and the Classical World." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 29(7): pp. 320–21.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1979. Greek Art of the Aegean Islands. no. 105, p. 156, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Picón, Carlos A. 2007. Art of the Classical World in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Greece, Cyprus, Etruria, Rome no. 49, pp. 61, 417, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Aruz, Joan, Sarah B. Graff, and Yelena Rakic. 2014. Assyria to Iberia at the Dawn of the Classical Age no. 177, p. 305, New York: 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.