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Relief with Leto, Apollo, and Python
Roman Provincial
Imperial Period
about 2nd century A.D.
Place of Manufacture: Egypt
Medium/Technique
Bone
Dimensions
Height: 8.1 cm (3 3/16 in.); width: 4.9 cm (1 15/16 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Ariel Herrmann in memory of Ellen Callmann
Accession Number2003.785
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsAncient Greece and Rome
ClassificationsSculpture
DescriptionThe relief is carved into the carving surface of the bone. Leto, wearing a peplos, rushes to her right and holds a nude baby with long hair against her belly with her right hand. She looks back to her left and raises her left arm as a giant snake rises up behind her. The snake's body is covered with crosshatching and its tail appears at the lower proper right. The child raises his right arm toward the snake. At the proper left is an irregular, elongated lump covered with crosshatching could be either more of the snake's coils or the omphalos at Delphi. The child is probably Apollo. His twin sister Artemis is omitted.
The panel has a flat frame articulated with two grooves. It is perforated with ten holes.
The panel has a flat frame articulated with two grooves. It is perforated with ten holes.
ProvenanceBy December 1972, Münzen und Medaillen A.G., Basel [see note]; May 1973, sold by Münzen und Medaillen to Ariel Hamill Herrmann, New York; 2003, gift of Ariel Herrmann to the MFA. (Accession Date: December 17, 2003)
NOTE: Münzen und Medaillen Sonderliste O, no. 61.
NOTE: Münzen und Medaillen Sonderliste O, no. 61.