Key (1–100 CE): Art, History and Details

Key (1–100 CE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Cleverly designed with an iron bit attached to a bronze handle, this key can be admired from all angles. While the handle terminates in the head of a ferocious boar, farther down are back-to-back heads of Mercury—his wings formed from the ears of the boar—and his goat-legged, horned son, Silvanus (also known as Pan). Given the rustic nature of the heads, scholars have suggested that the key might once have unlocked a country villa.

Object facts

• Title: Key
• Date: 1–100 CE
• Culture: Italy, Roman
• Type: Metalwork
• Technique: iron tang, bronze handle
• Dimensions: Overall: 15.6 cm (6 1/8 in.)
• Collection: GR - Roman
• Department: Greek and Roman Art
• Accession number: 1952.586

A detail from the museum

The bronze handle of this key combines three heads: of a boar, Mercury, and Silvanus.

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Kozloff, Arielle P. "Keys of Ancient Rome." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 80, no. 9 (1993).

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.