Bronze Lidded Box with a Satyr in the Getty Villa, June 2016

Title: Box with Relief-decorated Lid

Artist/Maker: Unknown

Culture: Greek

Place: Greece (Place created)

Date: 350–310 B.C.

Medium: Bronze

Object Number: 96.AC.87

Dimensions: 4.7 × 9 × 6.4 cm (1 7/8 × 3 1/2 × 2 1/2 in.)

Credit Line: Gift of Barbara and Lawrence Fleischman

In a rocky landscape, a bearded silen or old satyr sits on the ground holding a thyrsos, a staff connected with Dionysiac cult. Satyrs were half-human creatures who were companions of Dionysos, the god of wine. This satyr relief decorates the lid of a box. A miniaturized bronze version of the sumptuous gold chests used by the royalty of Macedonia in the mid to late 300s B.C. to hold cremated funerary remains, this box may have held jewelry or other small precious items.

The form of the box with its short plain legs and side rectangles imitates the construction of wooden chests. Two pegs on the front of the box and two on the top allowed the lid to be tied shut. The repoussé relief was made separately and soldered on to the lid. The relief was attached to the box in antiquity, but it is possible that it was originally intended to decorate another object.


Text from: www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/29539/unknown-maker-box-with-relief-decorated-lid-greek-350-310-bc