The decoration is divided into three tiers. In the uppermost, a swan (which may allude to the myth of Leda) approaches a woman who extends her palm; to the right, another woman is seated by an overturned jar. In the second tier, a seated woman is confronted by a standing woman with an outstreched right hand. In the third tier, two nude men are depicted with a seated woman in a tub-like boat. Scholars have debated the identification of this incised, bronze nose piece. It has been considered to be an Etruscan work of the third century B.C. but is, more likely, a much later Roman work of the fourth century A.D.
This image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
Open Access
As part of the Met's Open Access policy, you can freely copy, modify and distribute this image, even for commercial purposes.
API
Public domain data for this object can also be accessed using the Met's Open Access API.
Use your arrow keys to navigate the tabs below, and your tab key to choose an item
Title:Bronze nose piece from a horse's trappings
Period:Late Imperial
Date:4th century CE
Culture:Roman
Medium:Bronze
Dimensions:L. 10 5/16 in. (26.2 cm.) W. 7 7/16 in. (18.9 cm.)
Classification:Bronzes
Credit Line:Rogers Fund, 1913
Object Number:13.225.7
Said to be from Rome
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1914. "Department of Classical Art: Accessions of 1913. Bronzes." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 9(4): pp. 93–94, fig. 5.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1915. Greek, Etruscan and Roman Bronzes. no. 126, pp. 80–81, New York: Gilliss Press.
Dean, Bashford. January 1915. Handbook of Arms and Armor : European and Oriental, Including the William H. Riggs Collection. p. 199, New York: Gilliss Press.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1927. Handbook of the Classical Collection. p. 199, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Brown, Donald F. 1941. "Forty-Second General Meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America: A Late Antique Engraved Plaque from Egypt." American Journal of Archaeology, 45(1): p. 95.
Brown, Donald F. 1941. "A Late Antique Engraved Plaque from Egypt." Marsyas, : pp. 17ff., figs. 1–4, pls. VIII-IX.
Parlasca, Klaus. 1951. "Das Trierer Mysterien-mosaik und das aegyptische Ur-Ei." Trierer Zeitschrift fur Geschichte und Kunst des Trierer Landes, 20: p. 113, pl. 7.
Moreau, Jacques. 1960. Monumenta Artis Romanae: Das Trierer Kornmarktmosaik, 2. p. 16, pl. 13, Köln: M. Dumont Schauberg.
Weitzmann, Kurt. 1979. Age of Spirituality: Late Antique and Early Christian Art, Third to Seventh Century no. 215, pp. 239–40, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Musée & Galerie des Beaux-Arts. 1981. Profil du Metropolitan Museum of Art de New York : de Ramsès à Picasso. no. 52, p. 59, Paris: Musée & Galerie des Beaux-Arts, Bordeaux.
The Met's Libraries and Research Centers provide unparalleled resources for research and welcome an international community of students and scholars.
The Met Collection API is where all makers, creators, researchers, and dreamers can connect to the most up-to-date data and public domain images for The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.
Feedback
We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.
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.
