A fine late hellenistic carnelian intaglio. Leandro..

2nd - 1st century B.C.
15x17,5x3 mm

Leandro is facing left with the frontal  bust  and the head in profile. The face is characterized by beautiful young idealized fetaures, a slightly open mouth, a protruding eye and rounded chin. The hair is long and elegantly scattered in the field, according to one of Leandro’s typical iconographies. This subject is sometimes interpreted as Hero or Galene, especially when the character is portrayed from behind while swimming in the waves, according to the most recurring variant. According to the myth, the young Leandro crossed the dangerous strait of the Dardanelles every night to reach his beloved Hero, who was waiting for him on a tower with a lighted torch; but one night, due to the strong wind and the rough sea, it happened that the light of the torch went out, and Leandro, losing the reference, drowned, becoming the symbol of a courageous, eternal and always ardent love. The engraving is performed with great technical and artistic mastery, on a very thin stone with very delicate edges. The carving is higly polished and shows signs of wear with small lacks on the edge. Rare subject.
Cfr.: J. Kagan, Oleg Neverov, 500 Pierres Gravées du Cabinet du Duc d'Orléans- Le destin d'une collection, 2001 p. 44 n. 5/3L.; Pirzio Biroli Stefanelli, La collezione Paoletti. Stampi in vetro per impronte di intagli e cammei, vol. II, p. 243 n. 512, 549. AAA.VVV. I Cammei della collezione Medicea, n. 130-131.
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U.K. private collection