Bronze Trees from the Greek to the Roman World

Among the various anathemata that were offered in major Greek sanctuaries are fruits, vegetables, and trees in bronze and precious metals. These objects are well known from literary sources, which mention the bronze palm dedicated to the sanctuary of Delphi by Kypselos, and the one offered by the Athenians after the battle of the Eurymedon. Moreover, various metal trees are known to have functioned as interior decorations for sacred temples, such as the ingenious bronze palm tree in the Erechtheion crafted by Kallimachos. Others were decorative objects displayed in secular settings. After an earlier study on Greek bronze trees (Castoldi 2014), this new contribution focuses on bronze trees in the Roman world and no longer on anathemata, with the exception of some small trees in lararia or domestic shrines, as well as a number of lamp-holders shaped like tree trunks. It is possible that the secular artworks drew their inspiration from the great Greek plant-shaped anathemata—for example, the golden grapevine and the golden plane tree, which both decorated the palace of the king of Persia until the time of Alexander the Great. Such objects could have been a source of inspiration for many toreutics in the Hellenistic and Roman periods, such as the grapevine offered by Aristobulos II to Pompey the Great, as well as the trunk-shaped lamp-holders found in many wealthy domus.