REPUBLICAN PERIOD, CIRCA 2ND-1ST CENTURY B.C.

Name: A ROMAN CARNELIAN RINGSTONE WITH A DANCING MAENAD
Brand: REPUBLICAN PERIOD, CIRCA 2ND-1ST CENTURY B.C.
Price: 3000.00 USD
Availability: SoldOut

Price Realised USD 3,780

Estimate

USD 1,000 - USD 2,000

Closed: 14 Apr 2022

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A ROMAN CARNELIAN RINGSTONE WITH A DANCING MAENAD

REPUBLICAN PERIOD, CIRCA 2ND-1ST CENTURY B.C.

Price Realised USD 3,780

Closed: 14 Apr 2022

Price Realised USD 3,780

Closed: 14 Apr 2022

Details Lot Essay Related Articles More from

⁷⁄₈ in. (2.2 cm. ) long

Giorgio Sangiorgi (1886-1965), Rome, acquired and brought to Switzerland, late 1930s; thence by continuous descent to the current owner.

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Lot Essay

Engraved on this large ringstone is a dancing maenad with her head thrown back in ecstasy. She wears a long chiton with deep, wavy parallel folds revealing the form of her body beneath. In one hand she holds a thyrsus and in the other a fillet. The subject was popular in the Greek world already in the 5th century, as seen on Attic vases (see for example the red-figured amphora by the Kleophrades Painter, now in Munich, no. 36 in I. Krauskopf and E. Simon, "Mainades," in , vol. VIII). The subject was also a favorite with Neo-Attic sculptors (see the marble reliefs, nos. 144a-e in Krauskopf and Simon, op. cit.) and with gem engravers, beginning in the Hellenistic Period and continuing into the Roman era (see nos. 424-430 in D. Plantzos, ). That the Sangiorgi gem is Republican in date is confirmed by the numerous small drilled pellets for the details.