Etruscan, ca. 500 – 400 B.C.

Amber

L: 6.6 cm (2.5 in)

Serial: 23887

An impressively large piece of amber with a finely carved image of a siren, which has the head of a young girl and the body of a bird. These sirens were handmaidens of the goddess Persephone but after her abduction Demeter transformed them giving them wings to search for the lost goddess. Hades was responsible for stealing Persephone from Earth and bringing her to the Underworld. This inhibited the sirens from finding her and ultimately settled on the island of Anthemoessa where they would target passing sailors. The siren used a bewitching song to drag sailors to their deaths.

The depiction of the hybrid creature is close to the image known for the Greek and Etruscan vase painting of the previous period, where it was typically rendered with raised and spread wings. Here, only essential features have been chosen to define the fantastic being: a head in profile appears against the wing. A prominent outline of the face and neck is combined with delicately indicated striations marking the locks of the hairstyle. The craftsmen intentionally omitted the detailed representation of feathers at the upper part of the wing in aim to leave the surface clear to distinguish the head and facial features. The harmony and sense of detail dis-position in the design of this artwork are truly remarkable.

For millennia, amber, a fossilized tree resin, was a known material in jewelry of the Mediterranean. Available mostly through the trade with the Northern European areas along the Baltic Sea, amber was praised for its natural beauty.

It also attracted great attention from Greek and Latin writers and naturalists. Pliny the Elder dedicated a considerable discussion to amber quoting, among others, what Nicias stated on its nature: “… it is a liquid produced by the rays of the sun; and that these rays, at the moment of the sun's setting, striking with the greatest force upon the surface of the soil, leave upon it an unctuous sweat, which is carried off by the tides of the Ocean, and thrown up upon the shores of Germany” (Natural History 37. 11).

An object of luxury, amber was specifically valued for its transparency and color (Pliny names the best kind of amber which has “a brightness like that of fire” and resembles the Falernian wine) and it was also qualified for the proper-ties and deriving remedies to support human wellness.

CONDITION

Surface weathered; a few chips and cracks; traces of old adhesive on the bottom; a hole for suspension on the upper right side.

PROVENANCE

Ex- Ferrucio Bolla collection (1911-1984), Lugano, Switzerland; Ex- Swiss private collection.

PUBLISHED and EXHIBITED

FABULOUS MONSTERS, Phoenix Ancient Art 2021/40, New York, 2021, no. 4