IMPERIAL PERIOD, CIRCA 1ST CENTURY B.C.-1ST CENTURY A.D.

Name: A ROMAN CARNELIAN RINGSTONE WITH A SATYR AND DONKEY
Brand: IMPERIAL PERIOD, CIRCA 1ST CENTURY B.C.-1ST CENTURY A.D.
Price: 6500.00 USD
Availability: SoldOut

Price Realised USD 8,190

Estimate

USD 8,000 - USD 12,000

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A ROMAN CARNELIAN RINGSTONE WITH A SATYR AND DONKEY

IMPERIAL PERIOD, CIRCA 1ST CENTURY B.C.-1ST CENTURY A.D.

Price Realised USD 8,190

¹¹⁄₁₆ in. (1.7 cm.) long

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

J. Boardman and C. Wagner, Masterpieces in Miniature: Engraved Gems from Prehistory to the Present, London, 2018, p. 181, no. 167.

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Lot Essay

On this flat oval ringstone, an ithyphallic satyr approaches an excited donkey from behind, lifting the animal's tail. The subject of a satyr violating an animal was popular in Greek art by the 6th century B.C. (see for example the Attic black-figured kyathos in the British Museum with a satyr copulating with a deer, color pl. 26 in C. John, Sex or Symbol?, Erotic Images of Greece and Rome) and continued in popularity well into the Roman Imperial period.