A ROMAN GOLD AND NICOLO FINGER RING

CIRCA 2ND-3RD CENTURY A.D.

细节

A ROMAN GOLD AND NICOLO FINGER RING
CIRCA 2ND-3RD CENTURY A.D.
The solid hoop flat on the interior, carinated on the exterior, expanding to the pointed shoulders, the bezel set with a bevelled oval stone engraved with a youth shouldering a ram, gripping its forelegs and hind legs in his hands, standing on a groundline, wearing a short tunic
1 3/8 in. (3.5 cm.) long; ring size 3½

来源

Vienna Private Collection, early 1990s.

拍品专文

According to Carder (in Weitzmann, Age of Spirituality, Late Antique and Early Christian Art, Third to Seventh Century, p. 519) "the youthful ram-bearing shepherd had a long tradition of pagan usage (offering bearer, bucolic figure, personification of Winter, Hermes psychopompos), but in the Late Antique period this image acquired a general philanthropic savior symbolism. As such it was adopted by the Christians as the Good Shepherd (John 10:1-16; Luke 15:3-7)- Christ as the Savior of the Christian flock." There is nothing about the style of the present gem to link it specifically to either pagan or Christian usage.