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Scarab with the death of Aias/Ajax
Italic, Etruscan
Late Archaic Period
500–475 B.C.
Medium/Technique
Carnelian
Credit Line
Bartlett Collection—Museum purchase with funds from the Francis Bartlett Donation of 1912
Accession Number21.1199
CollectionsJewelry, Ancient Greece and Rome
ClassificationsJewelry / Adornment – Scarabs and scaraboids
Catalogue Raisonné
Lewes House Gems, no. 037 (1920; 2002).
DescriptionOrange-red carnelian. Scarab with a flat, oval base engraved intaglio; pierced lengthwise. Nude, bearded Aias/Ajax lying in frontal view with head to left. A sword, with hilt planted in the ground, pierces his side. His right arm is curled under his head. A winged female, wearing a girdled chiton, moves to left to cover his body with a large cloth. Hatched border. Back carved as a beetle with hatched border around the thorax and three lines dividing the elytra. Winglets almost completely rubbed off. Plastic, hatched legs. Plinth with double cable border. Missing chip at the back of the beetle. Worn back.
Provenance1901, sold by Sophia Rhousopoulos Heimpel, Athens, to Edward Perry Warren (according to J. D. Beazley, The Lewes House Collection of Ancient Gems, no. 37: from Corfu; bought from Madame Heimpel, daughter of Rhousopoulos, in 1901); 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)