Unknown Maker, Roman

This mirror cover depicts three Erotes—winged figures associated with love and sex—sacrificing a lamb at an outdoor shrine. On a high pedestal behind the altar is a statue of a nude male god. Religious rituals like the one shown here were enacted countless times at shrines throughout the Roman world, ensuring continued blessings from the gods.

—GB

Ancient craftsmen commonly used thin sheets of bronze to create lightweight metal objects like this mirror case. The basic shape of this mirror was most likely formed by planishing, a technique by which a smooth hammer is used to work the base material in spirals from its center. As planishing one piece can require thousands of blows, this object was undoubtedly annealed (a restorative process used to prevent cracking) several times. Once the desired shape and size was achieved, a decorative scene was applied by repoussé or embossing techniques. The specific repoussé technique is unclear; it may have been embossed on the front side using a stamp, or it may have been gently hammered onto the backside using a small- headed hammer or punch. This bronze roundel would have been attached to the cover of a box-mirror.