Diadem

Place of OriginGreece, Turkey, or Italy

Date250-150 BCE

Dimensions14 1/2 × 3/8 × 1/2 in. (36.8 × 1 × 1.3 cm)
Length of knot without sleeves: 1 1/16 in. (2.7 cm)
Length of knot with sleeves: 2 in. (5.1 cm)

MediumGold, garnet, and blue glass enamel inlay

ClassificationJewelry

Credit LineGift of The Georgia Welles Apollo Society with additional funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

2005.45

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 02, Classic

DescriptionThe object is a gold strap diadem composed of seven joined parts. The strap consists of eight parallel rows of loop-in-loop gold chain woven together side-by-side, creating a flexible mesh band. The central ornament is a "Herakles knot" (square knot) formed from sheet gold tubes, likely hollow, and flanked by two quadrangular, cuff-like terminals (manschetten) with pennant-shaped crenellations. The knot and cuffs are densely decorated with applied filigree wire in spiral and floral patterns, granulation (tiny gold spheres), and a single central oval setting containing a garnet. Five-petaled floral motifs on the knot and cuffs retain traces of blue glass enamel inlay. The straps terminate in triangular gold caps attached to loop-rings for fastening. The reverse shows evidence of the mechanical joins (links, rivets, and wires) used to assemble the components.

Label TextDiadems were worn around the head above the hairline, and tied with ribbons attached to rings at the strap ends. This diadem may have been a gift to a bride, because the five-petal blue flowers represent myrtle, sacred to Aphrodite, goddess of love, and to Hera, goddess of marriage. The “Herakles knot” (a square knot) was a good luck charm. The goldsmith used every sophisticated technique known to the ancient Greeks: repoussé (tooled raised designs) sheet gold; wire loop-in-loop chain woven to form straps; wire filigree; granulation (tiny spheres of gold); and glass and garnet inlay.Published ReferencesToledo Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art Masterworks, Toledo, 2009, p. 77, repr. (col.).Exhibition HistoryNew York, Ward & Co., January-March 2005.

Toledo, Toledo Museum of Art, Inspired Giving: The Apollo Society 25th Anniversary Exhibition, October 15, 2010-February 13, 2011, p. 37, repr. (col.) p. 37.

Comparative ReferencesSee also St. Petersburg, Hermitage, inv. X.1899.7, gold strap diadem with central Herakles knot flanked by lion's heads, from Chersonesos HK 114 (= tk 74), dated 200-280 B.C., published in Michael Pfrommer, Untersuchungen zur Chronologie Früh- und Hochhellenistischen Goldschmucks (Tübingen: Ernst Wasmuth Verlag 1990) no. HK 114, Taf. 4.4; also pp. 4-80 on Herakles knots; and in Dyfri Williams and Jack Ogden, Greek Gold: Jewelry of the Classical World, exhibition catalogue, The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York: Abrams 1995) pp. 196-197, nos. 131-133.