Selections from the Nasher Museum of Art
Disc with Bees
This extraordinary disc was probably worn as a pendant by
a woman in the ancient Greek world. The disc has a tiny hole
and is decorated with four honeybees clustered around a flower,
the petals of which are now missing. The surface of the disc
is articulated with chevron patterns. Although the flower
and one bee have been damaged, the pendant, which is nearly
3,000 years old, is still in fairly good condition.
The bees' thoraxes, the spherical elements of the flower's
stamens, the chevron designs, and the circumference of the
pendant are articulated with tiny gold granules, which contrast
with the smooth background and the bees' heads, wings, and
abdomens. This decorative technique, called granulation,
starts with gold that is shaved into a bed of charcoal dust.
When heated, the shavings become tiny gold spheres that then
may be soldered onto a surface. The granulation technique
is part of an "Orientalizing" trend, showing the
influence of the art of the ancient Near East (today's Middle
East) that spread across much of the eastern Mediterranean
in the seventh century B.C.E., including ancient Greece and
Etruria, in what is now Italy.
This pendant is part of a recent bequest to the Nasher Museum
of more than 200 classical works collected from the 1920s
to the late 1960s. It and other works from the gift, along
with selections from the existing Duke Classical Collection,
will go on view in the museum's permanent collection gallery
in February in an installation titled "The Past is Present:
Classical Antiquities at the Nasher Museum," co-curated
by Duke professors Sheila Dillon and Carla Antonaccio.
www.nasher.duke.edu
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