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Pseudo-scarab with Herakles struggling with Nereus or Geras, and Dionysos on the back
Italic, Etruscan
Archaic Period
about 520–500 B.C.
Medium/Technique
Carnelian
Dimensions
Thickness x Width x length: 0.7 x 1 x 1.3 cm (1/4 x 3/8 x 1/2 in.)
Credit Line
Bartlett Collection—Museum purchase with funds from the Francis Bartlett Donation of 1912
Accession Number21.1197
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsJewelry, Ancient Greece and Rome
ClassificationsJewelry / Adornment – Scarabs and scaraboids
Catalogue Raisonné
Lewes House Gems, no. 035 ter (1920; 2002).
DescriptionTranslucent, dark red cornelian. Pseudo-scarab with a flat, oval base engraved in intaglio; pierced lengthwise; mounted in a modern gold swivel ring. Herakles, wearing a lion skin, moves to left and graps a bearded, draped man, Nereus or Geras, by the forearm. Behind Herakles stands Athena, wearing a long garment and aegis, holding a spear in her right hand and lifting her other hand with an index finger extended. Behind the older man stands a draped and diademed woman, Doris?, holding a flower bud in her raised left hand. Pellet border stopping at the ground line. Exergue filled with alternately hatched triangles. Back carved as Dionysos, draped in a long chiton with hatched borders and mantle, running to right. He holds a drinking horn (rhyton) in his right hand and in the other a vine branch with grapes and tendrils rising up above his head and falling down his back. Offset plinth. Small chips missing around the plinth.
ProvenancePurchased in Rome by Arthur Evans (b. 1851 – d. 1941), Oxford; 1919, sold by Evans to Edward Perry Warren [see note 1]; April 7, 1921, sold by Warren to the MFA for $30,000.00 [see note 2]. (Accession Date: April 7, 1921)
NOTES:
[1] According to J. D. Beazley, The Lewes House Collection of Ancient Gems, no. 35.
[2] This figure is the total purchase price for MFA objects 21.1193 through 21.1221.
NOTES:
[1] According to J. D. Beazley, The Lewes House Collection of Ancient Gems, no. 35.
[2] This figure is the total purchase price for MFA objects 21.1193 through 21.1221.