Name: Sleep and Death cista handle
What it is: A bronze decoration on a lidded box
Where it is from: Italy
When it was made: 400 to 375 B.C.
Homer's "Iliad" and "Odyssey" have inspired countless books, movies and works of art in the nearly three millennia since the epic tales were first written. This small, bronze sculpture, once attached to an ancient box, shows how the Greek epics influenced the aesthetics of the enigmatic Etruscans.
The Sleep and Death cista handle, which is in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art, features a set of bronze figurines welded to form a decorative handle for a cista — a small, cylindrical, lidded box used for a variety of purposes in ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome and Etruria, an ancient region in central Italy.
The handle is roughly 7.3 inches long and 7.2 inch...
English (US)