THE CIRCULAR MATRIX FROM THE ROBINSON COLLECTION

Abstract

Summary. The bronze matrix, now in the collection of the Fogg Art Museum, is said to have been found in southern Thessaly close to Larissa Kremaste. As comparanda for the Scylla on the matrix the silver gilt plaque from the third century BC necropolis of Dyrrhachion in Illyria is discussed, as well as the matrix in the Antikensammlungen of Berlin and silver plaques decorating a belt from a late‐fourth‐century BC grave at Laos, Lucania. Discussing the Thetis emblem on the other side of the matrix the author analyses the motive in Classical art of the fifth/fourth century BC, paying special attention to the stamped fourth‐century BC gold and silver plaques with similar design coming from the Cimmerian Bosporus, Thessaly and Macedonia. Conclusions are drawn about the authenticity of the matrix in the Fogg Art Museum, and the close interconnections between toreutic centres in the late fourth century BC.