Date : approx. between 250 and 200 B.C.
Material : Gold
| Item 104 on 149
Greek Antiquities
Jewel (Fibule)
Vitrine : 5
Area related
Spain
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| Description |  |
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The brooch was formerly in the collection of the Royal House of Braganza and perhaps collected by Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg, consort of Queen Maria of Portugal. Most of the jewels of the Braganza dynasty were inherited in 1919 by HRH Nevada of Portugal, Princess d'Braganza and Duchesse d'Oporto. She emigrated to America and on her death in 1941 the collection was sold by her heirs to Warren Piper of Chicago.
The fibula was purchased by Thomas.F. Flannery Jr in 1950 at the Warren Piper sale. After examination at the British Museum in 1965, it was displayed at the "Early Celtic Art" exhibition of 1970, held in Edinburgh and the Hayward Gallery, London. From 1993 until 2000 it was on loan to the British Museum.
The arched bow carries eight curls on its top, while the side panels are decorated with running spirals and loops that were once surrounded by blue enamel. Each end takes the form of a dog's head. The hinge or spring is lost, together with the brooch pin itself. When worn, this pin would have been held in place by the moveable catch-plate in the form of a boar's head. The long "foot" of the fibula is formed from two thick wires twisted together that end in the jaws of a dog with raised ears. Beyond a bead with spiral decoration is the forepart of a rearing dog with flattened ears. The front paws of the dog rest on the bottom of the large oval shield that is held by the naked warrior who seems almost to sit on the arched bow of the fibula.
The warrior wears a Celtic helmet of Montefortino type, which probably had a tiny horn on either side. From a belt round his waist hangs a scabbard of La Tène I type, while his right hand grasps the hilt of a sword that had a three-lobed pommel also of La Tène type - the blade, now lost, must have pointed vertically upwards. The spindle-shaped boss of the oval shield marks it out too as of La Tène form. The warrior's eyes, like those of the animals were once filled with enamel, probably white surrounding a black centre.
The form of the fibula with its long "foot" and the addition of human and animal forms is best parallelled in a series of silver and bronze fibulae from the Iberian peninsula, suggesting that this masterpiece in gold was specially created for an Iberian client. That the jeweller was a Greek is indicated by the style and quality of the figured forms and by the technology of the gold working and the enamelling.
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