The ring has a narrow bezel, flat on top, with concave tapering sides, and a plain hoop, round in section. Set within the bezel is a nearly-circular flat carnelian, dark red in color with brown inclusions. The stone is engraved with a profile nude bust of Apollo, a laurel branch before him, enclosed within a hatched border. His abundant wavy hair is bound in a fillet, which bulges above the broad band because of its tautness and hangs in curls below. The style is based on that of the Diadumenos or “fillet-binder” of the sculptor Polykleitos, but the inclusion of the laurel branch confirms that Apollo was intended. The Diadumenos as a subject was popular on gems (see for example the sard ringstone in the Getty Museum, no. 231 in J. Spier, Ancient Gems and Finger Rings, plus a list of other examples). Busts of Apollo were also popular, many similarly with laurel branches in the field. Seltman (op. cit.) considered this gem a 5th century B.C. original, cut down from a scaraboid, but Boardman and Wagner (op. cit.) confirm this is a Roman “classicizing” work of the 1st century B.C.
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Masterpieces in Miniature: Ancient Engraved Gems formerly in the G. Sangiorgi Collection Part II
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Intact; minor surface scratches, a tiny crack under one shoulder of the gold mount.
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