casket;
flask;
container
- Museum number
- 1866,1229.2
- Title
- Object: Muse Casket
- Description
-
Casket; silver; circular with domed cover; engraved; surface of body and dome divided into sixteen panels, with flat and concave faces; 'flat' panel decoration includes: vases, vines and birds; fluted panels undecorated, those on body contain standing female figures under arches (eight of the nine muses); they are, to the right of the hasp, reading counter-clockwise: Urania, with a globe; Melpomene, with a Heraclean club and a mask; Clio, with a book and a caspa with scrolls; Polyhymnia, with a small mask; Terpsichore, with a lyre; Euterpe, with a double flute; Thalia, with a Dionysiac pedum and comic mask; and Calliope, with a scroll; top of dome: medallion containing female figures seated in landscape setting. Restored: interior fitted for five vessels - four identical silver canisters and one silver flask.
- Production date
- 330-370
- Dimensions
-
Diameter: 8.30 centimetres (Conical canister)
-
Diameter: 6.80 centimetres (Round canisters)
-
Diameter: 33.50 centimetres
-
Height: 10.60 centimetres (Conical canister)
-
Height: 10.40 centimetres (Round canisters)
-
Height: 26 centimetres (casket)
-
Height: 55.80 centimetres (with chain up)
-
Weight: 4800 grammes
- Location
- On display (G41/dc7)
- Exhibition history
-
Exhibited:
2012-2013 11 Nov-25 Aug, USA, Art Institute of Chicago, Tradition Transformed: Late Roman and Early Byzantine Treasures from the British Museum
2009 20 May-21 Sep, France, Paris, Musée National du Moyen Age Thermes de Cluny de Paris, Belle comme la Romaine: Cosmetics and Body Care from Antiquity to the Middle Ages
2003 7 Dec-2004 2 May, Italy, Milan, Museo Diocesano, Ambrogio e Agostino: le sorgenti dell’Europa
2000 21 Dec-2001 20 Apr, Italy, Rome, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Aurea Roma. Dalla Citta pagana alla citte Cristiana
1977-1978 18 Nov-12 Feb, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Early Christian Art
- Acquisition date
- 1866
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- 1866,1229.2
