IDENTIFIERS ----------- id: 12198 accession number: M.1-1842 DATE AUDIT ---------- created: Saturday 6 August 2011 updated: Monday 18 December 2023 DESCRIPTIVE DATA ---------------- object type: Bronze, cast and chased. The design is inspired by the shield forged by the Greek god Hephaestus for Achilles during the war between the Greeks and the Trojans, and is described in detail in book 18 of Homer's 'Iliad' (lines 478-609). During the course of the war between the Greeks and the Trojans, Achilles' close friend Patroclus was killed by the Trojan king's son Hector, whilst leading the Greeks disguised as Achilles. Hector took Achilles' armour from Patroclus' body. Achilles' mother, the nymph Thetis, asked Hephaestus to make a new set of armour for her son. Grief-stricken after the death of his friend, Achilles then wore the armour and used the shield in his famous fight against Hector, whom he killed. The centre of the shield depicts the heavens, with the chariot of the Sun surrounded by the constellations. The reliefs radiating outwards, around the centre of the shield, begin at the bottom with (1) the marriage procession and banquet, and proceed in an anticlockwise direction with: (2) the quarrel of citizens over a homicide and the judicial appeal by elders; (3) the siege and ambuscade; (4) the harvest field; (5) the grape harvest; (6) the shepherds defending their flocks; and (7) the Cretan dance. The border depicts the oceans. On the reverse there are four rings for suspension at the top, and a cross bar with a central hole. The reverse is engraved close to the edge 'DESIGNED AND MODELLED BY JOHN FLAXMAN RA/EXECUTED BY RUNDELL BRIDGE & RUNDELL JEWELLERS TO HIS MAJESTY/MDCCXXIV' (1824) title: shield NOTES ----- type: history note value: Cast by Messrs. Rundell & Bridge LICENSING --------- text license status: CC0 image license status: CC-BY-NC-SA OWNERSHIP --------- instutition: The Fitzwilliam Museum department: Applied Arts creditline: Given by Rundell and Bridge STABLE URL ---------- url: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/12198 PEOPLE ------------------- Achilles shepherds SUBJECTS ------------------- chariot processing eating quarreling besieging field chariot processing eating quarreling besieging field TECHNIQUES ---------- bronze, cast and chased casting CATEGORIES ------ category: sculpture DATING ------ creation date: 1824 - 1824 creation date earliest: 1824 creation date latest: 1824 culture: 19th Century, Early# culture: George IV CREATORS -------- maker: Flaxman, John maker: Rundell, Bridge and Rundell maker: Pitts, William DIMENSIONS ---------- dimension: Diameter units: cm value: 89.50 EXHIBITIONS HISTORY ------------------- title: Royal Goldsmiths: The Art of Rundell & Bridge 1797-1843 title: From Reason to Revolution, Art and Society in Eighteenth-Century Britain CITATIONS -------- Renaissance and Baroque Bronzes from the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge Royal Goldsmiths: The Art of Rundell & Bridge 1797-1843 From Reason to Revolution, Art and Society in Eighteenth-Century Britain John Flaxman, R.A. Catalogue of European Sculpture in the Ashmolean Museum, 1540 to the present day Important Silver, Gold Boxes & Objects of Vertu --- IMAGES surrogate: large format: jpeg location: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/aa/aa20/M_1_1842.jpg height: 745 pixels width: 760 pixels surrogate: mid format: jpeg location: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/aa/aa20/mid_M_1_1842.jpg height: 490 pixels width: 500 pixels surrogate: original format: jpeg location: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/aa/aa20/M_1_1842.jpg height: 745 pixels width: 760 pixels surrogate: preview format: jpeg location: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/aa/aa20/preview_M_1_1842.jpg height: 245 pixels width: 250 pixels surrogate: large format: jpeg location: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/portfolio/F25982D9_7CB9_CFFF_028E_8BBFC531887C/600/733/large_M_1_1842_mas.jpg height: 1003 pixels width: 1024 pixels surrogate: mid format: jpeg location: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/portfolio/F25982D9_7CB9_CFFF_028E_8BBFC531887C/600/733/mid_M_1_1842_mas.jpg height: 490 pixels width: 500 pixels surrogate: original location: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/M.1-1842_mas.tif surrogate: preview format: jpeg location: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/portfolio/F25982D9_7CB9_CFFF_028E_8BBFC531887C/600/733/preview_M_1_1842_mas.jpg height: 245 pixels width: 250 pixels surrogate: zoom format: pyramid tiff location: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/portfolio/F25982D9_7CB9_CFFF_028E_8BBFC531887C/600/733/M_1_1842_mas.ptif height: 4630 pixels width: 4725 pixels