Detail of a Silver Votive Plaque in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, June 2010

Silver Votive Plaque
Roman, late 2nd-3rd century AD

Accession # 1981.61

Similar votives, made of thin sheets of silver, cut and impressed to look like leaves or feathers, are known from many different provinces of the Roman Empire. They were pinned up in temples or shrines as votives to a variety of deities, who are usually named in a dedication. This example, however, in uninscribed, but the seated god can be identified as Pluto, God of the Underworld because he is accompanied by the three-headed guard dog Cerberus.

Text from the Metropolitan Museum of Art label.