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Details
A GREEK GARNET INTAGLIO AND GOLD RING
Set with an oval cabochon garnet engraved with the satyr Marsyas bound to a tree, depicted nude, with his back showing in a twisted three-quarter view, standing with his weight on his left leg, his right relaxed and bent at the knee, his bearded head in profile with long hair and pointed animal ears, within a sclupted gold mount
In Greek mythology, the goddess Athena invented the oboe, but threw it away because it distorted her face to play it. The satyr Marsyas found the discarded instrument, and soon learned to play. He then challenged the god Apollo to a musical contest and lost. The agreement was that the winner should do as he liked to the loser, and so Apollo chose to flay him alive. The scene depicted here, a popular one in the Hellenistic period, shows Marsyas bound to a tree in the moment before the flaying. Marsyas is associated with a river of the same name, a tributary of the Maeander in Asia Minor, created either by the flow of his blood or from the tears of his mourners.
Set with an oval cabochon garnet engraved with the satyr Marsyas bound to a tree, depicted nude, with his back showing in a twisted three-quarter view, standing with his weight on his left leg, his right relaxed and bent at the knee, his bearded head in profile with long hair and pointed animal ears, within a sclupted gold mount
In Greek mythology, the goddess Athena invented the oboe, but threw it away because it distorted her face to play it. The satyr Marsyas found the discarded instrument, and soon learned to play. He then challenged the god Apollo to a musical contest and lost. The agreement was that the winner should do as he liked to the loser, and so Apollo chose to flay him alive. The scene depicted here, a popular one in the Hellenistic period, shows Marsyas bound to a tree in the moment before the flaying. Marsyas is associated with a river of the same name, a tributary of the Maeander in Asia Minor, created either by the flow of his blood or from the tears of his mourners.
Provenance
E. Guilhou, Paris
Ralph Harari, London
Ralph Harari, London
Literature
S. De Ricci, Catalogue of a Collection of Ancient Rings Formed by the Late E. Guilhou, Paris, 1912, no. 132
Catalogue of the Guilhou Collection, Sotheby, 9-12 Nov. 1937, lot 191 Boardman, John and Scarisbrick, Diana, The Ralph Harari Collection of Finger Rings, London, 1977, no. 30
Catalogue of the Guilhou Collection, Sotheby, 9-12 Nov. 1937, lot 191 Boardman, John and Scarisbrick, Diana, The Ralph Harari Collection of Finger Rings, London, 1977, no. 30