A GREEK AGATE SCARABOID WITH A WARSHIP, CIRCA 6TH CENTURY B.C.

拍品描述

A GREEK AGATE SCARABOID WITH A WARSHIP, CIRCA 6TH CENTURY B.C. Of flattened oval form, the domed reverse left plain and the flat underside engraved in intaglio with a warship shown in profile moving to the right. The vessel rides low in the water, its long hull terminating at the stern in an upturned aphlaston and at the prow in a projecting ram set just above the waterline. A row of shielded rowing ports runs along the length of the hull above a line of oars angled outward and downward. Above the deck rise three helmeted figures, their round shields presented frontally in a compact file, while at the prow a lion-headed device projects forward. Beneath the keel, a dolphin swims in the same direction as the ship, its body arched and tail curled upward. The subject is a penteconter or early bireme of the type that dominated Aegean warfare in the Archaic period, before the trireme became standard in the later 6th century. The three shielded figures represent the marine complement stationed above the rowers, while the forward-thrusting ram identifies the vessel as a warship rather than a merchantman. The leonine prow ornament belongs to a repertoire of apotropaic ship-heads recorded on Corinthian and East Greek vase painting of the period, intended to menace the enemy and protect the crew. The dolphin below is not incidental filler but a conventional indicator of the open sea and, in Greek thought, a companion and protector of sailors sacred to Poseidon and to Apollo Delphinios. The scaraboid form, an oval domed bezel pierced laterally for suspension or mounting on a swivel hoop, is the standard sealstone shape adopted by Greek engravers from Phoenician and Cypriot prototypes in the 7th and 6th centuries B.C. Agate and other banded chalcedonies were preferred for such seals because they took a fine polish, resisted wear against wax and clay, and carried the layered colour that Greek lapidaries exploited to differentiate device from field. The choice of a hard stone worked with a bow-driven drill and abrasive powder marks this as a serious seal, intended for repeated use in commerce or personal correspondence, rather than as an ornament alone. Ship devices are among the more distinctive intaglio subjects of the Archaic period and are generally associated with the maritime cities of Ionia, the Cyclades, and the eastern Peloponnese, where naval activity was central to civic identity. This scaraboid exemplifies the Archaic Greek engraver's ability to compress a fully rigged warship, its crew, and the sea itself into an oval field of barely two centimetres, using the layered colour and hardness of agate to carry a device that was simultaneously a personal signature and a statement of maritime allegiance. Dimensions: Length: 2.1cm

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