- chapter 58: Mirrors in art and society –
inscriptions, complete discussion of the subjects or ornaments engraved on both sides of
the mirror, citation of parallels and possible attribution to a regional workshop or artist,
and fi nally a discussion of chronology. In the case of public and university museums there
is usually a history of the collection and discussion of provenance for each object.
Even before the CSE began to appear in 1981, a number of major articles and books
on various mirror topics had been published. In many ways these helped to determine
the format the CSE would follow. Among the several important pre-CSE contributions
are those of G. Matthies,^7 G. Mansuelli,^8 I. Mayer-Prokop,^9 D. Rebuffat-Emmanuel,^10
G. Pfi ster-Roesgen,^11 R. Lambrechts,^12 and U. Fischer-Graf.^13 These works attempted
to defi ne specifi c workshops or artists, to treat mirrors from specifi c periods, or to
catalogue large public collections.^14 In an ideal world the collections with mirrors that
have precise archaeological contexts would have been published in the CSE fi rst. That
way the authors treating collections of largely unprovenanced mirrors, which form the
majority, could use these more archaeologically-secure examples to develop opinions
about possible provenances. To a certain extent this happened with Sassatelli’s two CSEs
of the Bologna mirrors, several of which have good contexts. However, the majority
of these mirrors are undecorated and, therefore, of limited potential for dating other
engraved mirrors. Only recently have the excellent mirrors in the Museo Nazionale
di Villa Giulia’s extensive collection begun to appear in the CSE, and we have yet to
see a CSE from the major holdings in Florence.^15 In the meantime, the majority of
CSE fascicules published mostly treat unprovenanced mirrors; ultimately, many of the
conclusions posited in them will need to be updated or refi ned as more mirrors with
secure archaeological contexts are published.
THE BASIC CHARACTERISTICS OF
ETRUSCAN MIRRORSThe Etruscans produced polished bronze mirrors throughout their history. Estimates of
the surviving number of examples range between 3,000 and 4,000 if we include the
many undecorated and fragmentary mirrors and independent mirror handles. Certainly,
bronze was always the major medium for these mirrors, but a few silver examples have
survived and it is possible that other more precious alloys like electrum were occasionally
used. The earliest extant example, an undecorated tang mirror (Fig. 58.2), comes from
the Villanovan period at Tarquinia and probably dates to the fi rst half of the ninth century
bc.^16 This simple mirror shares many features with standard Etruscan tang mirrors of
later periods. It has a fl at, thick, circular disc and the triangular tang is attached with
three rivets similar to handle attachments on contemporaneous bronze razors.^17
Tang mirrors (Fig. 58.3) that have an attached handle made of bone, ivory or wood
continued to increase in popularity during the Late Archaic period, circa 525–450 bc.
At this point some discs are still circular, fl at and relatively heavy but many now have a
concave section with a slightly raised rim on the non-refl ecting surface.^18 This side is often
decorated with chased or engraved fi gural or vegetal designs.^19 Perhaps the concavity and
raised rim helped to protect the decorated surface from being marred when the mirror was
placed facedown on a dressing table. Most bone or ivory handles have simple lathe-turned
grooves or ridges. Some are ergonomically carved with concave grooves to accommodate
the grip of fi ngers (Fig. 58.3c). Others have elaborate fi gural representations (Fig. 58.4),
and at least one preserves vestiges of gilding and paint.^20