Pendant (Front, post-cons.)

This delicate silver plaque embossed in low repousse with a winged sphinx is one of three similar pendants possibly from the same ornament (see also 77.AM.72.4 and 77.AM.72.5). Framed within a linear border, the sphinx sits in right profile with its left forepaw raised and a sinuous tail curling upwards behind its back. It has a large almond-shaped eye, long nose, and a square jaw, while its distinctive hairstyle consists of a smooth close-fitting cap above long hair that falls in horizontal stepped ridges onto its shoulders. The sickle-shaped wing sweeps upwards with a small curl at the tip: the base is undecorated, and the wing is marked along its length with vertical striations suggesting feathers. Gilding covers the surface of the plaque.



It is probable that these three pendants were buried as grave goods. Part lion and part woman, sphinxes were closely associated with entrances and boundaries and often appear in funerary contexts in the Archaic period, where they assured safe passage to the Underworld. Sets of embossed rectangular plaques of gold, electrum, and – more rarely - silver are characteristic of art made on the island of Rhodes from the mid-7th century B.C. onwards, suggesting that these three pendants may have been produced in the eastern Mediterranean or on the Ionian coast of Asia Minor. Similar examples have been found in tombs on the island and would have been worn by women as pectoral ornaments, either strung together on a cord across the chest and attached to clothing at the shoulders or pinned directly onto the fabric.



Distinctive features of the motif also reflect eastern Greek influence. The depiction of the wings and hair is paralleled by a number of East Greek bronze relief plaques and shield-straps excavated at Olympia; the wings and pose are also replicated on a 6th-century B.C. terracotta revetment tile from Lydia (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art 1980.427.1). Similar sphinxes, however, also appear on a terracotta relief-vessel from Taranto (Amsterdam, Allard Pierson Museum 2697) and a black-figure cup from the  Monte Abatone tomb 4 in Cerveteri (Cerveteri, Museo Nazionale 87941). It is possible, therefore, that the three pendants may have been produced for an Italian market. During the Archaic period, Etruscan metalwork was influenced by Greek craftsmanship and examples of embossed pendants and diadems in gold and silver gilt, dating to the 6th-century B.C., have been found in tombs at Noicattaro and Sybaris (e.g. Bari, Museo Archeologico della Provincia 1659 and Sibari, Museo Archeologico Nazionale 44241). The popularity of necklaces with embossed pendant plaques endured in Italy into the Classical period. The 4th-century B.C. Tomb of Gold from the Camposcala necropolis in Vulci contained a necklace formed of alternating rectangular plaques also embossed with seated sphinxes (Vatican, Gregorian Etruscan Museum).