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+--- Thread: Flavian period helmet sculpture (/showthread.php?tid=18903)
Flavian period helmet sculpture - Forty-One - 05-27-2011
I was wondering if readers were aware of this interesting sculpture fragment in the Metropolitan museum of art. I've not seen it referenced elsewhere:
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/25.78.62
Re: Flavian period helmet sculpture - A_Volpe - 05-28-2011
I have seen this very piece at the MET a year or two ago, actually there to see the excellent Samurai arms & armor exhibit; anyway, it is a peculiar piece, and not a lot of information I could find about it.
The cheekguard appears to show a helmet with a "ring" crest, as mentioned in the caption in the link, as well as two crossed shields, looking a little like Clipeus style or "Celtic/Gaulic"; and there appears to be what looks like a sword of some kind, maybe in a scabbard, on the front (right in picture) edge.
The helmet shape seems a little awkward, but otherwise what we know from Robinson et. al. classifications and finds, seems to be within reason in comparison of the known types, leaning perhaps towards an Italic style.
In the display area with that sculpture is a giant (~4") 20-sided glass die, and a metal tube pen/quill, a signet ring and some other little bits. In another display area (Grecco-Etruscan I think), they had on display a nice example of an Italo-Corinthian type in bronze, and I believe still had elements of it's crest(s) attachments. Their collections and displays in the Classical period are kind of hap-hazardly spread about, compared to say, their incredible Egyptian collections, but it -IS- the MET, they design it so you can [happily] get lost for a few days and still not see everything.