CIRCA LATE 1ST CENTURY B.C.

细节

A ROMAN CARNELIAN RINGSTONE
CIRCA LATE 1ST CENTURY B.C.
The flat oval exquisitely engraved with a maenad riding on a hippocamp, the maenad in an elaborate twisting pose, her head turned back over her shoulder, shown in three-quarter view, her voluptuous nude torso turning to her left, the left side compressed, with a mantle wrapped around her legs and swirling behind her in a circular arc that frames her torso, her right arm around the hippocamp's neck, her fingers curving back, supporting a filleted thyrsus, her left arm lowered to the head of a dolphin swimming beside her, trailing the ends of her mantle from her hand, her feet overlapping the dolphin's long tail, the hippocamp with the forelegs raised above waves, its head naturalistically detailed, a corner of the maenad's mantle projecting forward below the hippocamp's head, its coiled tail with the fluke upraised, the waves undulating below
11/16 in. (1.7 cm.) wide

来源

Alfred Morrison (1821-1897); Christie's, London, 29 June 1898, lot 75. Sir Arthur Evans (1851-1941); Pierres gravées antiques: collection d'un archéologue-explorateur, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 8 May 1905, lot 64, pl. 5.
Alexander Constantine Ionides (1862-1931); thence by descent.
Acquired by the current owner, London, 1978.

出版

J. Boardman, Engraved Gems, The Ionides Collection, London, 1968, no. 28.

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拍品专文

The fine style of this gem and the perfectly balanced composition indicates that this is the work of a master engraver. Although the artist did not sign his work, and indeed only very few gem-engravers ever did during the Roman period, there are enough stylistic similarities to suggest that this might be associated with the work of the gem engraver Sostratos, who signs at least three cameos and one intaglio. Other unsigned gems have been attributed to him based on style (see Vollenweider, Die Steinschneidekunst und ihre Künstler in spätrepublikanischer und augusteicher Zeit, pp. 32-63; and Spier, Ancient Gems and Finger Rings, p. 154). His works is characterized by a preference for Bacchic scenes, the use of complex poses, as seen here in the twisting three-quarter maenad, and, on his cameos, the skillful use of the drill for minute details, something seen here along the tail of the hippocamp. Although this gem may not be by the artist himself, there are enough elements in common to suggest it could at least be from his workshop. For female figures riding on a hippocamp, Nereids are typically depicted (see the cameos, no. 59 and 68 in Gasparri, Le Gemme Farnese); the presence of the thyrsus indicates that our rider should be a maenad, a female follower of Dionysus.