Biconical Bead

Geometric Period (800–600 BCE)

Greek; Thessaly

These precious bronzes objects are votives, or devotional gifts, made for gods. They come in many forms. Some are miniature sculptures of animals, mostly depicting horses, deer, and birds. Others are items of personal adornment, including beads and brooches. Quite a few seem once to have been attached to something else. This assemblage is characteristic of the thousands of votives that were hung from sacred trees or placed in sanctuaries around Greece. Once a shrine was full, the votives were gathered together and ceremonially buried to make room for more offerings. This comes from Thessaly in north-eastern Greece.

Status: On View, Gallery 152
Department: Arts of Greece, Rome, and Byzantium

Culture: Ancient Greek
Title: Biconical Bead
Place: Greece (Object made in:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 800 BCE–600 BCE
Medium: Bronze
Dimensions: 2.8 × 5.5 × 2.8 cm (1 1/8 × 2 1/8 × 1 1/8 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Walter Alexander
Reference Number: 2008.569
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/196452/manifest.json

Art Institute of Chicago, Annual Report: 2008-09 (Art Institute of Chicago, 2009), pp. 19-20.

Art Institute of Chicago, Of Gods and Glamour: The Mary and Michael Jaharis Galleries of Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Art, Gallery 151, November 11, 2012 - present.

George Zakos, Basel, Switzerland from at least 1965 [according to email from the owner of Ariadne Galleries to Mrs. Walter Alexander in curatorial file]; purchased by Ariadne Galleries of New York, NY about 1975; sold to Mr. and Mrs. Walter Alexander of Geneva, IL, 1985; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2008.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.