Etruscan Bronze Handle from a Cista in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, February 2008

Two bronze handles from cistae (toiletries boxes)
Praenestine, 4th century BC

Accession #s: 09.221.11, 13.227.7

These solid-cast handles depict a popular subject in Etruscan art, warriors carrying the body of a fallen comrade from the battlefield. In these two examples, all the figures are nude, but some handles show them wearing armor, and occasionally the carriers are given wings, indicating that they are personifications of Sleep and Death.

Text from the Metropolitan Museum of Art label.