Statuette of Tinia (Zeus) (c. 500 BCE, perhaps with modern patina): Art, History and Details

Statuette of Tinia (Zeus) (c. 500 BCE, perhaps with modern patina) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Tinia, the most powerful god in the Etruscan pantheon, often appears with a thunderbolt, the same attribute associated with Zeus and Jupiter in Greek and Roman religion and myth. The outstretched left hand may once have held a scepter. Although the figure finds numerous parallels among other Etruscan bronzes of the late 500s and early 400s BC, its surface is oddly rough and mottled with spots, perhaps the result of early modern treatment or coating meant to protect or improve its appearance. A 2001 analysis of the bronze composition showed results consistent with other ancient Etruscan alloys.

Object facts

• Title: Statuette of Tinia (Zeus)
• Date: c. 500 BCE, perhaps with modern patina
• Culture: Etruscan
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: bronze
• Dimensions: Overall: 13.3 x 8.6 x 3.2 cm (5 1/4 x 3 3/8 x 1 1/4 in.)
• Collection: GR - Etruscan
• Department: Greek and Roman Art
• Accession number: 1928.196

A detail from the museum

A break to the right wrist has been repaired with a dowel.

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Richardson, Emeline Hill. “The Etruscan Origins of Early Roman Sculpture.” Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome 21 (1953): 75–124.
• Richardson, Emeline. Etruscan Votive Bronzes: Geometric, Orientalizing, Archaic. Mainz am Rhein: Verlag P. von Zabern, 1983.
• M. Tiverios, "Zeus Keraunios," Lexicon iconographicum mythologiae classicae (LIMC), vol. 8. Zürich: Artemis, 1981-2009.

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.