A ROMAN, AMETHYST SEAL DEPICTING A RECUMBENT HOUND, CIRCA 2ND-3RD CENTURY A.D.

拍品描述

A ROMAN AMETHYST SEAL DEPICTING A RECUMBENT HOUND, CIRCA 2ND-3RD CENTURY A.D. Of domed oval form, carved in the round from a translucent stone of pale violet tone, the upper surface worked into the figure of a hound shown recumbent with legs folded beneath the body and head turned to rest along the forepaws. The musculature of the haunches is indicated by broad rounded planes, the ribs and shoulder suggested by shallow parallel striations, and the muzzle, ears, and eye rendered in summary linear cuts. The underside is left flat and smoothly polished, forming the sealing face. Traces of earthen encrustation remain lodged within the deeper cuts of the carving. The subject belongs to a well-attested repertoire of small-scale Roman glyptic in which domestic and hunting animals are depicted in states of repose. The recumbent hound, often a Molossian or Laconian hunting type, carried associations of loyalty, vigilance, and the pleasures of the chase, and appears on gems, rings, and funerary monuments across the Roman world. The pose, with head turned back over the flank, derives from Hellenistic sculptural prototypes and was adapted in miniature for personal seals and amuletic use. The choice of amethyst is significant. Among the Romans the stone was valued not only for its clarity and colour, which approached that of fine wine-diluted glass, but also for a set of prophylactic properties described by ancient authors, chief among them the belief that it protected the wearer from intoxication, a virtue derived by folk etymology from the Greek amethystos, "not drunken." Amethyst was accordingly a favoured material for seals worn on the person, combining the practical function of sealing with an apotropaic charge. The stone was drawn principally from Egyptian and Anatolian sources, and its working demanded specialised lapidary skill, placing objects of this class within a higher tier of glyptic production than the more common carnelian or nicolo intaglios. The three-dimensional treatment of the animal, rather than the more usual intaglio image cut into a flat bezel, aligns this piece with a smaller group of Roman gems in which the seal itself takes the sculptural form of its subject. Such pieces functioned simultaneously as seals, amulets, and small cabinet sculptures, and were often mounted in rings or suspended as pendants. This gem exemplifies the sculptural strand of Roman Imperial glyptic, in which the traditional flat sealstone gives way to a fully modelled figure carved from a prestige material. The economy of the cutting, the choice of amethyst, and the sympathetic reading of the animal's pose together place the object within the more refined register of personal ornament produced for the Roman gem-wearing class of the second and third centuries. Dimensions: Length: 2.9cm

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