Mirror

Description

Artemis (the Roman Diana), or a Roman lady with divine fantasies, after her bath in a rustic, woodland setting, is the subject of the tondo in relief on the back of this Roman hand mirror. Her cloak is draped over the rocks on which she sits, and she holds the end wrapped around a small hand mirror in her raised left hand, a divine celebration of the uses of the mirror in a Roman household. The landscape in front of her, to the right, recalls the paintings and reliefs from houses around the Bay of Naples before the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79. The quiver of the goddess leans against the base of a garlanded altar with a small herm on top. A second terminal figure, Priapis, the god of gardens and fertility, tilts back while facing to the right on the ledge at the right. The bovine skull in the right foreground suggests the sacrifice after a successful hunt.

Provenance

Formerly Hamburg Art Market [Hornbostel 1980]; Mathias Komor (1909-1984), New York, NY, acquired from a private art dealer in Hamburg before 1985 [according to acquisition records in curatorial file]. James W. (1913-1990) and Marilynn (1925-2019) Alsdorf, Chicago, IL, given to the Art Institute of Chicago, December 1985.

Mirror

Ancient Roman

2nd century

Accession Number

104999

Medium

Reflective disk: bronze; repoussé disk: brass

Dimensions

0.9 × 11.8 cm (3/8 × 4 11/16 in.)

Classification

mirror

Museum

The Art Institute of Chicago

Chicago, United States

Credit Line

James W. and Marilynn Alsdorf Collection