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Barnebys HQ
Brahegatan 10
BOX 5038
114 37 Stockholm
All auctions / Asian Art / Roman Carnelian Intaglio w/ Winged Female Figure, Victory?
Roman, Imperial period. A miniature oval ringstone of translucent orange carnelian, domed above and engraved in intaglio on the flat face with a nude winged female standing in contrapposto, turned to the left. Her head appears helmeted, wings rise behind the shoulders, and a slender vertical element, perhaps a staff, scepter, or trophy stand, occupies the field before her. The cutting is summary and linear, the work of a busy provincial workshop rather than a court engraver, with wheel strokes still legible across the figure. Gems of this scale were set in finger rings and pressed into wax to seal correspondence and secure goods, so the device served as both personal emblem and legal signature. The winged type most likely represents Victory, though the helmet invites comparison with armed Minerva or Roma. Victoria, the Roman counterpart of Greek Nike, was among the most durable devices in glyptic art: she appears crowning trophies, inscribing shields, and alighting on globes across four centuries of ringstones. Her popularity was partly political and partly personal, a wish for success in litigation, commerce, or campaign carried on the owner's hand. Carnelian was the workhorse of the Roman gem cutter, prized because warm wax releases cleanly from its polished surface, and because its color was thought to guard against ill fortune. The helmet complicates the reading here. Victory is normally bare-headed, while Minerva and the personification of Roma wear the crested Attic or Corinthian helmet, and Minerva is rarely winged. Engravers working at speed frequently conflated attributes, and a helmeted, winged figure may reflect exactly that shorthand rather than a discrete deity. Item # 204838
Estimate:£188.49
To the auctionView all items fromArtemis Fine ArtsorAsian Art
Estimate:
£188.49
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In the taste of SÉRAPHIN SOUDBININE (1867-1944) (SERAFIM NIK - Lot 130
03/12/2026
£1,234.76
Est: £347.68
