A ROMAN SAPPHIRE INTAGLIO OF A GODDESS, CIRCA 1ST-2ND CENTURY A.D.

拍品描述

A ROMAN SAPPHIRE INTAGLIO OF A GODDESS, CIRCA 1ST-2ND CENTURY A.D. Of oval form, the pale blue sapphire cut en cabochon on the reverse and engraved on the obverse in intaglio with the head of a goddess in profile to the right. The hair is drawn back from the brow in fine parallel waves, gathered into a chignon at the nape, and bound with a laurel wreath whose leaves and berries are rendered in short deliberate strokes across the crown. The features are cut with restraint: a straight nose continuous with the line of the forehead in the Classical manner, a small full mouth, and a rounded chin above a long neck. Below, the shoulder is draped with a garment whose upper border is defined by a row of small drilled beads suggesting a jewelled or embroidered edge, terminating in a scalloped hem. Iron-red and dark inclusions run through the stone, and the surface retains traces of what appear to be red ochre or cinnabar residues within the cut lines, likely the remains of ancient pigment used to enhance the design for impression. The laurel crown, the idealised Classical profile, and the beaded shoulder drape are consistent with representations of a goddess or personification in the Roman imperial repertoire, possibly Ceres, a Muse, or the deified consort of an emperor represented in divine guise. The laurel is the attribute of victory and of Apollonian association, and when worn by a female figure most often signals the assimilation of a mortal woman, an imperial lady, or an abstract personification to a divine type. Without an inscription or further attribute the identification remains open, but the vocabulary is unmistakably that of the early imperial glyptic tradition, in which the boundary between imperial portraiture and divine personification was deliberately elided. The choice of sapphire is itself significant. Corundum was among the hardest and rarest materials worked by Roman gem-cutters, reaching the Mediterranean from Sri Lanka through the Indian Ocean trade that intensified under the Julio-Claudians and Flavians. Its hardness demanded diamond-tipped tools and considerable time at the wheel, and its cost restricted such commissions to the senatorial and equestrian orders, or to imperial circles. Where the majority of surviving Roman intaglios are cut in carnelian, nicolo, or garnet, engraved sapphires form a small and prestigious subset, and their subjects tend accordingly toward the imperial, the divine, and the dynastic rather than the generic or apotropaic. The engraver has exploited the natural translucency of the stone, cutting shallowly so that the design reads clearly when the gem is held to the light or impressed in wax, while preserving the pale blue field as a luminous ground. The presence of red pigment residue within the intaglio lines is a survival occasionally noted on ancient engraved gems, where such pigments were applied to sharpen the visibility of the cutting. This intaglio exemplifies the highest register of Roman glyptic production under the early Empire, in which the confluence of an exotic imported stone, an idealised Classical profile, and the ambiguous language of divine or imperial personification served to mark both the wealth and the cultural aspiration of its owner. Engraved sapphires of this period survive in small numbers, and the type occupies a specific place within the tradition where portable gem-cutting approached the finest work in cameo. Dimensions: Height: 1.5cm

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