Phoenix Ancient Art S.A.

This superb mirror has been made in the technique called “lost wax” and completed with fine and elaborate work “à froid” (incisions, riveting etc…). Although fragile, the outstanding artistic and technical qualities of this work of art are clearly visible. The caryatide and the winged figures are modeled with a great refinement and numerous details are incised with a great precision. The handle is in the shape of a young woman which is typologically close to the “Archaic korai”. She is standing with her left leg forward. Her outstretched right hand holds an object which may be a perfume container (an alabastron) or simply a flower. Her left arm rests alongside her body while the left hand holds the fabric of the chiton. She wears leather shoes. The woman has long hair arranged in long vertical plaits held back with a loose ribbon. Her forehead is crowned with a diadem made of spherical beads and she wears earrings. Her face is finely and sensitively modeled with precise and realistic features. Around her head, two nearly identical Nike fly and, at the same time, hold the disk of the mirror. They are attached to the piece by a rivet fixed to the extremities of the disk support. They are standing, with their arms outstretched, wings spread and fixed to their backs. The torsos and heads are seen from the front. They are both dressed like the kore, with a long chiton and leather boots and have long hair. The features of their faces, their hair, the feathers of their wings, their hands etc…are all finely incised.

There are three known types of mirrors in the Greek civilization: the mirrors with a simple handle, the box mirrors with a cover, and the mirrors with a figured handle, like this one. This last type of mirror used to be set on a base, as a stand. The handles took the shape of a figure, a kouros or a kore. The presence of the two winged figures on each side of the kore is common and served to reinforce the support of the disk. However, it is extremely rare that these figures represent Nike, as it is known on only one other example in Cleveland Museum. In general, the flying figures are Erotes, Sphinxes or Griffins.

Parallels:

• KEENE CONGDON L.O., Caryatid Mirrors of Ancient Greece, 1981 (in particular n. 22 (Aegina or Sicyon), n. 24 (Attic?), n. 29 and n. 35 (Sicyon ?); with 2 Nikes, n. 33).