A GREEK AMETHYST INTAGLIO OF A DEITY, HELLENISTIC PERIOD

拍品描述

A GREEK AMETHYST INTAGLIO OF A DEITY, HELLENISTIC PERIOD Of oval form, the translucent violet stone carved in intaglio with a standing female figure occupying the central field, framed by a raised bevelled border divided into compartments bearing a sequence of smaller figural and symbolic devices. The principal figure stands in three-quarter view, the head shown in profile with hair drawn up and bound, the torso nude to the waist, drapery gathered about the hips and falling in vertical folds to the ground. She leans against a tall columnar support at her right side, extending her left arm to hold a small figure or attribute on her outstretched palm, while a branch, likely a laurel or olive spray, rises behind her shoulder. The surface of the central field shows a light network of fine wear-scratches consistent with long use, while the raised outer band preserves the crisper detail of the compartmentalised frieze. The border compartments each contain a distinct motif carved in low relief: figures in varied attitudes, quadrupeds, and what appear to be symbolic implements, arranged in radial sequence around the central image. The iconography of the central figure, nude to the waist, holding a small figure on the extended hand and supported against a column with the laurel or olive behind, is consistent with a representation of a goddess bearing a Nike or Victory in the palm, a compositional formula associated in the Hellenistic and later Graeco-Roman repertoire with Aphrodite, Athena, or a personified Tyche. Without a securely identifying attribute the figure is best described as a deity of the Nikephoros type. The surrounding frieze, with its ordered sequence of distinct devices, suggests an astrological or calendrical programme, possibly the signs of the zodiac or a related cycle, encircling the principal image. Amethyst was prized in the Greek and later Graeco-Roman world for its violet clarity and its supposed apotropaic properties, the name itself derived from the belief that the stone protected its wearer from intoxication. Its hardness made it a demanding medium for the gem-cutter, and finished intagli in amethyst were correspondingly costly, reserved for personal seals, ring-stones, and amuletic objects of high status. The combination of a principal deity with a surrounding cycle of secondary devices is unusual in gem-engraving of the period, where the ring-stone format typically confines itself to a single subject, and points to a stone intended not only as a signet but as a talisman carrying a wider iconographic programme. The figure of a deity holding a Victory, supported by a column and accompanied by the sacred branch, belongs to a compositional tradition that circulated widely across the Hellenistic Mediterranean, adapted from monumental cult statues into portable form on coins, seals, and gems. On a personal amulet the image would have functioned as an invocation of the goddess's protection and favour, the surrounding frieze extending that protection across the cycle of time or the fixed order of the heavens depending on the reading of the border devices. This intaglio exemplifies the ambition of the finer Hellenistic amethyst gems, in which a hardstone reserved for costly personal ornament is used to carry not a single emblem but a composed iconographic scheme, uniting a principal cult image with a subordinate cycle in a single miniature field. It sits within the tradition of the amuletic signet, where the seal's practical function and its protective purpose are inseparable. Dimensions: Height: 2.5cm

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