Important Etruscan Gold Bowl with Heracles and the Ceryneian Hind

Culture: Etruscan

Period: Around 600 B.C.

Material: Gold

Dimensions: 14.5 cm in diameter (handle to handle); weight: 37.23 g

Price: Sold

Ref: 4089

Provenance: Swiss private collection, acquired in the 1960s to the 1970s. Auctioned by the the heirs in a French auction house.

Condition: Except for some dentations intact and of excellent quality.

Description: Important and very rare cup of gold foil consisting of five parts. On a conical foot with a intricately ribbed rim sits a broad, circular cup, on its rim the same intricate rib decoration. On the outside two circular handles are brazed on, each of their ends finishing in volutes. In the centre of the cup an elaborately embossed gold foil depicting the nude Heracles grabbing the Ceryneian Hind on its neck. The sacred animal, which Heracles needed to catch alive, looking terrified at him, with its mouth open and ears raised. The hind legs are parallel to the ground, the left foreleg raised high and bent, the right hoof turned. A dynamic scene in archaic style, depicting the third labour by Heracles for Eurystheus from Oinoe.