Roman Carnelian Gorgoneion Intaglio with Winged Medusa, Inscribed ANT

Roman, Imperial period. A lovely oval intaglio of translucent orange-red carnelian, cut with a gorgoneion: the head of Medusa shown face-on. Her round, full-cheeked face is calm rather than monstrous. Flowing locks frame it, and a pair of small wings rises from the crown. The softened, almost beautiful Gorgon belongs to the later Hellenistic and Roman reworking of the type, which turned the snarling archaic mask into a figure of melancholy beauty. The engraver cut the hair and wings with quick drill and wheel strokes, and the features are modeled to give a crisp, rounded impression in wax. The letters ANT are cut into the field, probably an abbreviated personal name, perhaps the owner's. Set into a ring, the stone would have served as a personal seal and also as an apotropaic charm against harm. The gorgoneion was among the most widely used protective images in the ancient Mediterranean. In myth, Perseus cut off the head of Medusa, the one mortal Gorgon, and gave it to Athena, who set it on her aegis. There the head kept its power to turn enemies to stone. Worn on armor, set into floors, or carried on a finger, the image was meant to turn the evil eye back on whoever cast it. The wings sprouting from the head show the so-called beautiful Medusa type, best known from the Medusa Rondanini in Munich. Roman gem engravers used it widely from the late Republic onward. Short groups of letters on Roman intaglios usually abbreviate a personal name, so the stone worked both as a protective charm and as a mark of its owner. Item # 205241

Estimate:$500

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