A very fine and large greek late hellenistic carnelian intaglio. Ptolemaic Female bust.

2nd-1st century B.C.

21 x 21 x 4 mm

The young character is facing left, with the head in profile slightly inclined downwards. The bust is instead depicted in three quarters, with uncovered shoulders and the chest characterized by a delicate breast, covered only by a light, very tight tunic. The character is characterized by thick hair, formed by elegant curvilinear locks that cover the head descending on the nape and forehead, rising slightly at the top. The anatomical volumes of the face and torso are executed with a very low and delicate relief, while the hair and the tunic, almost a wet drapery that sensually reveals the underlying breast, are engraved with more marked and raised lines. In front of the figure, always in very low relief, almost imperceptible, we can see a structure, probably architectural, with a frame (rather than considering it a scepter?). The identification of the character is not clear and multiple, given the absence of safe attributes. The iconography and composition of the scene recall for some details a gem from the Farnese collection, depicting a female bust characterized by the same half-closed mouth and very short hair with wavy, almost masculine locks, in the act of contemplating a mask and identified as Melpomene. Musa is in fact defined as the character depicted half-length with a chiton, in front of a column / architectural structure with a frame on top of a mask, exactly in front of his face framed equally by a wavy and very short hair (Dactyliotheca Capponiana). This iconography is in fact considered as the representation of poetry or of a poet. The ephebic face, young and very delicate, has almost masculine features, similar to the androgynous beauty of Antinous. The small eye, the linear nose, the small fleshy and slightly open mouth, the rounded chin, the hair disordered by curvilinear locks that dominate the head, the delicate and engraved bust with imperceptible relief compared to the dress, the attitude of the face and his languid contemplative expression: all stylistic details referable to the late Greek production of the Hellensitic period, full of pathos and characterized by an extreme and extraordinary executive refinement. In the valuable catalog raisonné concerning the Greek portraits in the Cabinet des Médailles in Paris, the impression of a gem (n. 111) considered as lost and of unknown location, certainly from the De Clecq collection, was taken from a Ptolemaic gem. This piece depicts the portrait of a young princess daughter of Ptolemy VI and Cleopatra II, dressed only in an almost transparent peplum delicately fixed on the bare shoulders; in front of her a spike and a poppy flower: The face, also in this case, is characterized by a sweet melancholy, full of pathos and delicacy, the features of the flight refined, in very low relief, the mouth slight opened, the head in profile slightly inclined downwards, the nose straight ahead. Its physical and stylistic characteristics, the compositional and executive typology are very similar and in part identical to the carnelian bust carving yet to be identified. Apparently both can be traced back to the same cultural and artistic sphere, perhaps to the same engraving workshop. The carnelian intaglio can probably depicts in the same way a prolemaic princess of the Seleucid empir. The gem is masterfully engraved with great art and technical expertise; the stone, chracterized by a pure deep red, is mirror polished. Chip on the edge. Artwork of great rarity.

Parallels: M. L. Vollenweider, Camées et intailles, Tome I, Les Portraits grecs du Cabinet des médailles, n. 111, 123, 124, 209, 217; Le Gemme Farnese, 1994, p. 126 n. 192 (296); M. L. Ubaldelli, Dactyliotheca Capponiana, p. 224.

U.K., private collection 70's, in the same family since then.