.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The underside is engraved with a winged goddess running to the left. She wears a long chiton that reveals the form of her body beneath, with a dotted border at the hem. Her hair is bound in a kekryphalos with the ties flowing behind her and a fringe of hair emerging along her forehead. In her lowered hand she holds a dotted wreath, while in the other she holds a flower. The figure is enclosed within a hatched border.
The Group of the Leningrad Gorgon takes its name from a blue chalcedony scaraboid from Pantikapaion depicting a four-winged running Gorgon, mounted on a gold chain. On a rock crystal scarab in London, a nearly identical running winged goddess wears a similar chiton and kekryphalos and also holds a flower (see J. Boardman, Archaic Greek Gems, nos. 236 and 238). Gems of this group display a “comparatively simple, though bold modelling of the figures and the extremely detailed linear patterning of drapery and wings. The outlines of limbs show through this patterning clearly, and the effect is exactly that of early red figure” (Boardman, op. cit., p. 91).
The Group of the Leningrad Gorgon takes its name from a blue chalcedony scaraboid from Pantikapaion depicting a four-winged running Gorgon, mounted on a gold chain. On a rock crystal scarab in London, a nearly identical running winged goddess wears a similar chiton and kekryphalos and also holds a flower (see J. Boardman, Archaic Greek Gems, nos. 236 and 238). Gems of this group display a “comparatively simple, though bold modelling of the figures and the extremely detailed linear patterning of drapery and wings. The outlines of limbs show through this patterning clearly, and the effect is exactly that of early red figure” (Boardman, op. cit., p. 91).