Fibula

Place CreatedBoeotia, Greece, Europe

CultureGreek, Boeotian

PeriodGeometric

Date8th Century BCE

MediumBronze

Credit LineCarlos Collection of Ancient Art

Dimensions4 5/16 x 7 1/2 in. (11 x 19 cm)

Object number2001.011.001

Label TextThe exquisitely engraved decoration on this massive fibula (safety-pin) depicts a horse grazing in a meadow surrounded by four water-birds, and, on the other side, five fishes. The pin would have fastened a mantle of loosely woven fabric by the shoulder, and the principal side with the horse would have faced outwards. When desirable to display the reverse, the arch would be turned upside down, to reveal the fishes now swimming the right way up.

It has been suggested that the subject matter reflects the belief at that time that the universe was divided into three parts: water (fish), earth (horse) and air (birds). The horse implies aristocratic power: only the elite could afford to keep them in Greece. Three votive bronze horses in the Michael C. Carlos Museum are contemporary (1984.5, 1999.11.9, and 1990.4).
Exhibition HistoryMCCM Permanent Collection Reinstallation, September 2004 - June 2008
MCCM Permanent Collection Reinstallation, September 2013 - June 19, 2014
MCCM Permanent Collection Reinstallation, July 2014 - Present
Published ReferencesMCCM Newsletter, March - May 2002.
Jasper Gaunt, "New Galleries of Greek & Roman Art at Emory University: The Michael C. Carlos Museum," Minerva 16 (2005): 13-17.
Michael C. Carlos Museum: Highlights of the Collections (Atlanta: Michael C. Carlos Museum, 2011), 44.

ProvenanceEx private collection, Switzerland, from 1960s. Thence by descent, 1970s. Purchased by MCCM from Phoenix Ancient Art, Geneva, Switzerland.

Status

On view

Collections