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Scarab with Hercle/Herakles reclining on a raft
Italic, Etruscan
Archaic Period
500–480 B.C.
Medium/Technique
Carnelian
Credit Line
Bartlett Collection—Museum purchase with funds from the Francis Bartlett Donation of 1912
Accession Number21.1202
CollectionsJewelry, Ancient Greece and Rome
ClassificationsJewelry / Adornment – Scarabs and scaraboids
Catalogue Raisonné
Lewes House Gems, no. 042 (1920; 2002).
DescriptionOrange-red carnelian. Scarab with a flat, oval base engraved in intaglio; pierced lengthwise. Hercle/Herakles reclining on his right side on a raft. He holds the billowing sail, bow and two arrows in his left hand and uses the club in his other hand as a rudder. His right elbow rests on a folded pillow. The sea with six floating amphorae below. Pellet border. Back carved as a beetle with a hatched border around the thorax and two raised lines dividing the elytra. A detailed winglet on each side. Detailed legs with spined front legs. Plinth decorated with tongue pattern. Chips missing around the stringholes.
Provenance1912: purchased in Rome by Edward Perry Warren (according to J. D. Beazley, The Lewes House Collection of Ancient Gems, no. 42: bought in Rome, 1912); April 7, 1921: purchased by MFA from Edward Perry Warren for $ 30,000.00 (this figure is the total purchase price for MFA 21.1193-21.1221)