A JASPER INTAGLIO INSCRIBED

拍品描述

A ROMAN RED JASPER INTAGLIO WITH A DOLPHIN AND THE INSCRIPTION "AMORIS", CIRCA 2ND-3RD CENTURY A.D. Of flat oval form, the red jasper gemstone engraved in intaglio with a dolphin swimming to the right, its curved body tapering to a forked tail raised behind, the head rendered with a prominent eye, open mouth and pointed snout, the body detailed with cross-hatched scales and fin. Above, in a gentle arc following the upper edge of the stone, the Latin inscription AMORIS is cut in neat capitals, the letters shaped for legibility when the stone is impressed in wax and read in reverse. The surface retains a warm, slightly mottled tone characteristic of the material, with fine natural veining visible across the field. The pairing of image and word forms a small amatory device. AMORIS, the genitive of amor, translates as "of love" and is a formula found on Roman signet gems, often understood as an abbreviated pledge such as pignus amoris, a token of love, or as a caption identifying the sender's sentiment when the seal was pressed into wax to close a letter or gift. The dolphin carried strong erotic and protective associations in the Roman visual vocabulary: sacred to Venus, born of the sea from which the goddess herself arose, and a common companion to Cupid in wall painting and minor arts. Its presence here reinforces the meaning of the inscription rather than illustrating a separate subject. Red jasper was among the preferred materials for Roman intagli from the later first through the third centuries A.D., valued for its fine grain, resistance to chipping under the wheel, and a saturated colour that gave crisp definition to the impressed sealing. Its warmth also carried associations with vitality and blood, which suited amatory and apotropaic devices. The stone would have been set in a finger-ring of gold, silver or bronze and used as a personal seal, its device and legend serving at once as identification, ornament and message. Small gems of this kind sit at the intersection of Roman private life and the wider iconographic economy of the empire, where a compact image and a few carved letters could stand for a whole idea. The combination of dolphin and inscribed sentiment places the present intaglio within a well-attested class of love-tokens circulating in the second and third centuries, particularly across the Italian peninsula and the western provinces. This intaglio exemplifies the amatory sealstone of the Roman middle imperial period, in which a single Latin word and a Venereal attribute are compressed into a personal device intended for daily use. Its interest lies less in scale than in the directness with which text and image cooperate to declare a private meaning in a public medium. Dimensions: Length: 2cm

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