Vatican Museums

Bronze caskets (cistæ) were used to hold objects related to the care of the body, such as mirrors, ointments and strigils (scrapers). This specimen, of particular artistic quality, was unearthed in the niche of a rich tomb discovered by the Campanari brothers. The handle is an imaginative sculpted group comprising a man and a woman elegantly balanced on the back of two geese; the figures are possibly identifiable as Aphrodite and Adonis (the goose is a sacred animal for the goddess). It bears embossed decorations: the heads of a young Satyr and a crowned and bejewelled Maenad are depicted on the lid, amid spirals, delicate tendrils, flowers and birds; on the body there is a frieze depicting an Amazonomachy. On foot and on horseback, the Amazons are curiously shown with Greek costumes and weapons, rather than the traditional bipennes (double-headed axes) and peltæ (rounded shields).
In the second half of the fourth century B.C., Etruria and Latium assimilated many stimuli from the art of Hellenised southern Italy. These include the combination of plant elements with isolated heads, and the Amazonomachy evoking aspects adopted in the funerary art of Taranto.