Czére Andrea szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 105. (Budapest, 2006)
MARIANNA DÁGI: Training the Eye: Technical Details as Clues in the Attribution of Ancient Jewellery
sort of hierarchy between goldsmiths, or postulate particular connections between places of production, but rather concentrate on describing the phenomena as precisely as possible. For this reason I would propose the adoption of "goldsmith" or "maker" instead of conventional "master", "hand" instead of "master hand", and "place of production" instead of the more usual "workshop". In the latter case, I do this in the full awareness that my chosen term could refer either to a single room, or to a larger geographical area (a city or a region). The great advantage of these terms is that they both name the things we observe and form a good springboard for further research on what it all means: the reconstruction of the process of jewellery making. The examination of the technical features of the eight bull's-head hoop earrings revealed the possibilities of this method of comparative technical analysis. The feasibility of it will naturally be proven or refuted by a similar examination of securely provenanced material. It is nevertheless clear that meticulous examination of technique is a crucial step in the process of jewellery attribution. Naturally this does not imply that the value of technical details should be overestimated; it springs rather from the recognition that technical features have a much stronger impact on the craft of jewellery-making, than for example on painted pottery —a recognition rooted in the nature of the craft itself. Marianna Ddgi is curator at the Department of Classical Antiquities at the Mitsein?; of Fine Arts, Budapest. APPENDIX I Technical evidence of the connection among the bull's-head hoop earrings with simple connecting element (nos. 1-4): 4 ne following similarities prove that pieces 1. and 2. belong together (figs. 1/a-d., and 2/a-d.): 1. In both cases the hoop is built up from three convex strips of sheet gold twisted around a base-tube. The strips come apart on both pieces at the same point, i.e. about two centimetres from the connecting element, where they are soldered to the base-tube (cf. figs. 1/a-b., and 2/a-b.). 2. The strip-twisted wire decoration soldered to the base-sheet of the connecting element, which is bent into the shape of a truncated cone, is identical on both pieces —note the long, round tipped wire arches, with one strip-twisted and one plain wire at the open end, and one plain and one strip-twisted wire at the join of the connecting element and the head (cf. figs. 1/c. and 2/c).
