Chapps

A fresco depicting three small winged figures in a dimly lit room playinghide and seek. One figure stands in a doorway on the left, partially in shadow. The central figure is running to the right, with a surprised expression and greenish wings. The third figure, also winged, stands at the far right covering their face with both hands. The background features muted earth tones and architectural elements like a door and wall panels, with visible cracks in the painting.

For #FrescoFriday a #Roman wall painting from the Casa dei Cervi, Herculaneum, depicting Cupids playing hide and seek. I especially like the one who covers his eyes - some things haven't changed since Roman times! In Roman wall painting of the 1st c. AD, scenes depicting...🧵 1/2

🏺 #archaeology

Please show your receipts. Do you have primary sources for this?

Oooooo ... I love him!

Many thanks! Loads more photos and info to follow on a bunch of ancient art. I try to find objects that have good stories to tell.

Votive female terracotta head A votive female head, possibly representing a deity, wears a veil and a beaded necklace. Her hair is parted at the center and is pulled back in tight wavy locks that cover her ears. She wears a tall h...

Oh, those are wonderful. You never know if curators have spotted the fingerprints, so it doesn't hurt to ask them if they've seen them. Here's a terracotta votive head that's quite literally covered in fingerprints. Zoom in! Of course, they would have been hidden under paint.

flic.kr/p/2rgwM4g

Oh, man, I very much know not to eat *anything* in Hades ... particularly not pomegranates.

Hah - thank you. I was surprised that no one at the BM had spotted the thumbprint in the previous 140 years it had been in the museum, but I didn't really see it until I zoomed in on one of my high res photos. Seeing ancient fingerprints really brings the humanity behind these artworks alive.

Polychrome terracotta group, perhaps Demeter and Persephone UPDATE to an earlier photo, this one using a new camera. Terracotta group of two female figures sitting on a couch with elaborately turned legs, thick cushions, and draped with brightly painted text...

You can find more information and a high res version of the photo for download on Flickr, below. 🏺 3/

flic.kr/p/2rDq7gr

Closeup of the right knee of the older woman, where all the pigments have degraded, leaving the bare orangey terracotta. On it is an imprint of a thumb, turned to about a 45º angle, as you'd expect if someone were holding the wet clay in both hands. There are undoubtedly several fingerprints under all of the pigments, something the original owner would never have seen. A few years back, I spotted the thumbprint on a high res photo I took of this figurine, and reported it to the British Museum. They had never seen it before, so the print was added to the object's archived info (they track these examples of fingerprints).

The figurine is from Myrina, Turkey, part of the Roman province of Asia Prima (Greek Aeolia), ca. 100 BCE. It's painted with vibrant pigments: blue, pink, red, white.

Best of all is the *thumbprint* of the potter on the knee of the older woman (guess who found this?). 🏺 2/

#BritishMuseum

Terracotta group of two female figures sitting on a couch with elaborately turned legs, thick cushions, and draped with brightly painted textiles. They lean towards one another as if to share a secret, and the older woman on the right, with her himation pulled over her head, places a hand over her bared breast. The younger woman on the left raises her right hand over her breast under her own himation, mirroring her companion; on her left hand, we can see a large ring with a circular bezel. Each woman wears thick-soled sandals, and the older woman's sole is painted dark red. We see remains of the white slip - the base coat over which pigments would have been applied - as well as the bright remains of blue on the couch's drapery, and vibrant rose madder pigment on the younger woman's himation (cloak) and the cushions of the couch, red on the sole of the older woman's sandal and the younger woman's chiton (tunic), and a pale pink on the flesh of both women. Hellenistic, circa 100 BCE. Made in Myrina (Turkey), Asia Minor, where it was said to be found. Terracotta with pigments. British Museum (1885,0316.1)

Such a beautiful polychrome terracotta group of two female figures sitting on a couch, leaning towards one another as if to share a secret. The older woman clasps her bare breast. They are thought to be Demeter and her daughter Persephone, but the identification is unsure. 🏺 1/ #ancientbluesky

📸 me

Well, the Greeks and the Romans would have felt that warfare without wisdom would be disastrous. And it was - they each ignored the wisdom part many times. They were only human, and those mistakes happen again and again throughout history.

Oh, how funny - I just noticed that the primary image for the Wikipedia page you posted is one of my photos. 😆

The owl is the cute surprise which is a nice counterpoint to the almost baroque splendor of Minerva’s helmet and chiton (all of those folds of fabric - wow).

‘Innocent peasants’ is pretty much a modern term. Kingdoms, empires, they all had goals and used resources, human and otherwise. This is definitely Athena-Minerva, goddess of wisdom and warfare. We’re noodling on the image of the pedum (shepherd’s crook) or is it a lituus, an augur’s staff?

Oh those *were* fun, weren’t they? For us both. Every time I see the friends intro with the couch, I think you should be sitting there! 😁

two men in suits are sitting at a table toasting with cups . ALT: two men in suits are sitting at a table toasting with cups .

Thanks to Sophie, we’ve got some amazing memories.

Nah, it’s an attribute, not necessarily meaning she’s about to do some harvesting. Just a symbol of her role. If it’s instead supposed to be a lituus … well, once again we’re in unicum territory because she’s never been shown with the implement of a priest/augur.

I’d expect to actually see a tree! 🌳

Flat silver auguar's staff - a lituus - which has a curved, almost spiraled, top, much like a bishop's crook. Not very long, though - it wouldn't have been the length of a cane, but half that.

Yeah, I think we need to accept this for what everyone first sees - what looks like a cane, but is instead either a pedum (shepherd's crook) or an odd lituus (augur's staff), as seen below.

Unique flat 3rd-4th c. CE silver example, Hungarian National Museum.

Small bronze statuette of the syncretic (combined) goddess Athena/Minerva-Isis-Tyche. Divinities bringing together the functions of several deities were popular, particularly in Roman times. The wisdom of Athena, the benevolence of Isis, and the chance bounty of Tyche are combined in this figure. The steering bar, once held in her right hand, is lost. She wears a peplos with Athena-Minerva's aegis on the breast (scaled hide with the head of the gorgon, which was protective), a diadem, the feathered headdress of Isis, and holds the cornucopia of Tyche. The rudder would have been another of Tyche's attributes. A truly combined goddess. Romano-Egyptian, 2nd c. CE. British Museum (1920,0218.1)

But I don't think this Athena-Minerva is syncretic with Egyptian gods - she has a pure Greco-Roman visage. If she were syncretic with Isis, we'd probably see a different headdress. Like the Athena/Minerva-Isis-Tyche from the BM, below. She used to carry a steering oar (rudder). ALT for more info.

Ha - might as well and truly beat that dead horse! It actually doesn't much resemble a was scepter, which has the head of a set animal, as it does the famed crook that pharaohs carried (Tut's crook - a shepherd's crook - and flail, below). Yes, Athena-Isis was a thing, actually.

📸 B. Abbott

Yes, you can absolutely see the sandal strap. It's remarkably detailed - just an astonishing work of art.

But, of course, that wreath under the owl could also be a laurel wreath. At the end of the day, if it's a pedum or a lituus, it's a unicum - there's no other known image of Minerva holding either attribute.

Always a possibility - or a combination of a round base and rocks. Difficult to say. I'm leaning more and more toward it having a round lip, sitting on a rock or two. If only to stop thinking about it.

SO many docs … major rabbit holes!

Creative idea, although I’m not sure that such a crank would be curved like that. The ones I’m seeing in art are usually straight and operated by Erotes/Cupids or donkeys. But … 🤷‍♂️

I mean … maybe? Not sure why Minerva would be holding a shovel, of course. 🤷‍♂️

And was this shovel’s handle originally this bent?

Left side of the carved marble sarcophagus of Junius Bassus (c. 359 CE), showing cupids harvesting grapes. One of them, white stomping grapes, holds a pedum, a shepherd’s crook.

Olives were also harvested by hitting the tree’s branches with a stick to cause the ripe olives to fall to the ground. The pedum was the multi-use tool of pastoral art - used for grape harvesting, shepherding, and, originally, smashing bunnies.

📸 arthistory390, Flickr (sarcophagus of Junius Bassus)

Mosaic on the roof of the ambulatory of the Mausoleum of Santa Costanza in Rome, showing a scene of grape harvesting and stomping. The three slaves who are in a small roofed structure, stomping on the grapes, each hold a pedum, a shepherd’s crook - the multi-use tool of pastoral art.

Haha - so you’re a diseased olive tree. Those can be made into wonderful cheese boards, though. The pedum is used throughout Roman art in the hands of Cupids harvesting grapes and I’ve seen them in satyr hands while harvesting olives. A generic ‘pastoral’ reference.

📸 Peopling the Past

I think it’s definitely a crook - a pedum - because it seems quite solid and not snaky. See my most recent (re)post, where I discuss Minerva’s more obscure tutelary origins, teaching mankind the cultivation of the olive. Perhaps a reference to that, with an olive wreath under the owl.