Lead Votive Plaque in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, September 2009

Title: Lead votive plaque

Medium; Technique: Lead

Culture: Roman

Period: Imperial

Date: probably 3rd century A.D.

Dimensions: H.: 3 3/4 x 3 1/16 in. (9.5 x 7.8 cm)

Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1921

Accession Number: 21.88.175

On View


Description:

The plaque contains a complex iconography of divine figures and symbols, probably to be associated with Thracian or Dacian beliefs of the Lower Danube region. Presiding over the whole scene is Sol Invictus (the invicible sun-god) in a quadriga (four-horse chariot). His cult originated in the Near East and gained increasing influence under imperial patronage during the third century A.D. The state worship of Sol was only supplanted by Constantine's adoption of Christianity in A.D. 312.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/Works_of_Art/collection_database/greek_...