Statuette of Tinia (Zeus)
c. 500 BCE, perhaps with modern patina
- Medium
- bronze
- Classification
- Sculpture
- Dimensions
- Overall: 13.3 x 8.6 x 3.2 cm (5 1/4 x 3 3/8 x 1 1/4 in.)
- Culture
- Etruscan
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Greek and Roman Art
- Credit line
- Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this 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.
