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Knife Handle with Dionysos

Late Roman, 4th century; bone, bronze, iron; 9.5 × 4.5 cm (3 3/4 × 1 3/4 in.). BZ.1969.11
Knife Handle with Dionysos

Meticulously carved in low relief, Dionysos leans on a tree trunk and holds a bunch of grapes, a reference to wine as the source of his divine ecstasy. A bronze panther on top of the handle attacks another unidentified animal. The corroded iron blade originally swiveled on a rivet placed next to Dionysos’s left foot.

 

Provenance

  • Nicolas Landau (1887–1979), Paris; collection of Mildred and Robert Woods Bliss, Washington, DC, by 1947; on loan to Dumbarton Oaks, 1947–1969 (formerly accessioned as BZ.1955.2); gifted by Blisses to Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington, DC, May 1969.

Selected Bibliography

  • R. Ettinghausen, From Byzantium to Sasanian Iran and the Islamic World: Three Modes of Artistic Influence (Leiden, 1972), 3, fig. 2.
  • K. Weitzmann, Ivories and Steatites, vol. 3 of Catalogue of the Byzantine and Early Mediaeval Antiquities in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection (Washington, DC, 1972), 16–17, no. 7, plate 6.
  • A. Cutler, The Craft of Ivory: Sources, Techniques, and Uses in the Mediterranean World, A.D. 200–1400 (Washington, DC, 1985), 13, fig. 15.
 

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Knife Handle with Dionysos
Knife Handle with Dionysos

Late Roman, 4th century; bone, bronze, iron; 9.5 × 4.5 cm (3 3/4 × 1 3/4 in.). BZ.1969.11