Thursday's Term to Learn - Praenestine Cista

CC Flickr User dmadeo

The ancient city of Praeneste (modern Palestrina) is renowned for bronze funerary cylindrical storage containers known as cistae Praenestinae. Their purpose is not known for certain. They may have been made in the 4th and 3rd centuries B.C., although in 1964, Larissa Bonfante Warren preferred 100 B.C. to an earlier date.

It is thought that the cistae held toiletry items, including perfume flasks and mirrors. The scenes shown on the thin sheet of bronze that formed the container's surface, were engraved and are thought to have imitated scenes from Greek wall paintings. The handles on the hammered and engraved lids are often human and well-modeled, according to Dorothy Kent Hill. She also says that holes were punched regularly around the cylinder without care to what part of the engraving they obliterated. The holes were used to attach rings and chains.

The singular term Praenestine Cista is used by the Metropolitan Museum of Art to refer to the largest of their cistae. Its dimensions are H. 23 in. (58.3 cm), Diam. 13 3/8 in. (34 cm). It shows a scene from the Trojan War. A Praenestine cista at the British Museum has a domed top and may illustrate the death of Astyanax, Neoptolemus, or the sacrifice of Iphigenia. Another famous Praenestine cista is the Ficoroni Cista.

References:

• "Two Bronze Cistae from Praeneste," by Dorothy Kent Hill. The Journal of the Walters Art Gallery, Vol. 35, (1977), pp. viii, 1-14
• "A Latin Triumph on a Praenestine Cista," by Larissa Bonfante Warren. American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 68, No. 1 (Jan., 1964), pp. 35-42
• Walters Museum Cista Handle
• Metropolitan Museum of Art Large Cista