This brooch is decorated with a chimaera (a beast composed of parts of various animals), with the head of a lion and another of a goat behind it, mounted on wings stemming from the lion's chest and linked at the top to form its neck. The chimaera was a popular beast in Etruscan mythology, its best-known representation being the large-scale bronze from Arezzo (now in Arezzo Museum). On brooches of this type the form of the chimaera varies, sometimes it includes a serpent-head tail and also a griffin-head. The beast on this brooch opens its jaws as if to attack the foal reclining with its front legs curled up, seemingly unawares, at the far end of the catch-plate.

The brooch is made from gold sheet with the lion made in two halves which have been pressed into a mould and soldered together lengthwise down its body.

место:
Room 71: Etruscan world