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Lot Essay
This deeply-carved gem depicts the personification of Africa wearing the distinctive elephant skin headdress. Dea Africa was associated with fertility and abundance which for the Romans were embodied by the wealthy African provinces, often described as the 'granary of Rome'. For a depiction of the subject on a nicolo intaglio, cf. M. Henig, Classical Gems, Ancient and Modern Intaglios and Cameos in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, 1994, no. 332.
For another gem showing a female head wearing the elephant headdress, this time depicting the African province of Libya characterised by the typical Libyan hairstyle, cf. A. Furtwängler, Beschreibung der geschnittenen Steine im Antiquarium, Leipzig & Berlin, p. 240, pl. 46, no. 6533.
The iconography of the elephant headdress has older roots and can be found in Hellenistic representations of Alexander the Great celebrating the conquest of India. The Ptolemaic rulers in Egypt were the first to adopt this symbol which was often reproduced on coin or in glyptic. For such a representation of an Hellenistic ruler in the manner of Alexander on a black jasper gem now in the British Museum, inv. no. 1866,0804.1, cf. D. Plantzos, Hellenistic Engraved Gems, Oxford, 1999, p. 58, pl. 18, no. 99.
For another gem showing a female head wearing the elephant headdress, this time depicting the African province of Libya characterised by the typical Libyan hairstyle, cf. A. Furtwängler, Beschreibung der geschnittenen Steine im Antiquarium, Leipzig & Berlin, p. 240, pl. 46, no. 6533.
The iconography of the elephant headdress has older roots and can be found in Hellenistic representations of Alexander the Great celebrating the conquest of India. The Ptolemaic rulers in Egypt were the first to adopt this symbol which was often reproduced on coin or in glyptic. For such a representation of an Hellenistic ruler in the manner of Alexander on a black jasper gem now in the British Museum, inv. no. 1866,0804.1, cf. D. Plantzos, Hellenistic Engraved Gems, Oxford, 1999, p. 58, pl. 18, no. 99.