Getty Museum acquires collection of ancient engraved gems

9 mai 2019

Getty Museum acquires collection of ancient engraved gems

LOS ANGELES, CA.- The J. Paul Getty Museum acquired at auction last week a group of seventeen ancient engraved gems from the collection of Roman art dealer Giorgio Sangiorgi (1886-1965). The great majority of the Sangiorgi gems were acquired before World War II, and many derive from notable earlier collections amassed by Lelio Pasqualini, the Boncompagni-Ludovisi family, the Duke of Marlborough, and Paul Arndt in Munich. Comprising some of the finest classical gems still in private hands, the Sangiorgi gems were brought to Switzerland in the 1950s and have remained there with his heirs until now.

The group acquired by the Getty includes Greek gems of the Minoan, Archaic and Classical periods, as well as Etruscan and Roman gems, some of which are in their original gold rings. They have never been on public view and were only recently published for the first time in Masterpieces in Miniature. Engraved Gems from Prehistory to the Present (London and New York, 2018) by Claudia Wagner and Sir John Boardman.

“The acquisition of these gems brings into the Getty’s collection some of the greatest and most famous of all classical gems, most notably the portraits of Antinous and Demosthenes,” explains Timothy Potts, director of the J. Paul Getty Museum. “But the group also includes many lesser-known works of exceptional skill and beauty that together raise the status of our collection to a new level. Two such are the image of three swans on a Bronze Age seal from Crete, which has an elegance and charm transcending its early date (c. 1600 B.C.); and the image of the semi-divine Perseus, a marvel of minute naturalism that cannot fail to enthrall. This acquisition represents the most important enhancement to the Getty Villa’s collection in over a decade.”

Lot 1. A Minoan blue chalcedony tabloid seal with three swans, Late Palace period, circa 16th century B.C.; ¾ in. (1.9 cm.) long. Estimate USD 50,000 - USD 70,000. Price realised USD 118,750. © 2019 Christie’s Image Ltd

Provenance: Giorgio Sangiorgi (1886-1965), Rome, acquired and brought to Switzerland, late 1930s; thence by continuous descent to the current owners.

Literature: J. Boardman and C. Wagner, Masterpieces in Miniature: Engraved Gems from Prehistory to the Present, London, 2018, p. 5, no. 2.

Note: Minoan artists delighted in portraying the world around them, as seen on frescos, vases and gems. The three swans on the gem presented here are naturalistically depicted, one with its wings raised, as if alighting on water. Similar swans are found on two green jasper lentoids, one from Knossos and one from Mirabello, both now in Oxford (see pls. 94 and 95 in Boardman, Greek Gems and Finger Rings), and also on a fresco from Hagia Triada, Crete.

This exceptional Minoan gem is sculpted from blue chalcedony, a form of microcrystalline quartz, now weathered to white in places. The source of this stone is thought to have been Anatolia, thus indicating the trade networks that existed throughout the ancient world during the Bronze Age. The back of the stone displays horizontal facets, an unusual feature.

Lot 11. A Greek mottled red jasper scaraboid with Perseus, Classical period, circa 4th century B.C.; 1 ¼ in. (3 cm.) long. Estimate USD 80,000 - USD 120,000. Price realised USD 855,000. © 2019 Christie’s Image Ltd

Provenance: Giorgio Sangiorgi (1886-1965), Rome, acquired and brought to Switzerland, late 1930s; thence by continuous descent to the current owners.

Literature: J. Boardman, Greek Art, 5th edition, London, 2016, p. 204, fig. 194a.
J. Boardman and C. Wagner, Masterpieces in Miniature: Engraved Gems from Prehistory to the Present, London, 2018, p. 46, no. 38.

Note: According to Boardman and Wagner (op. cit., p. 46), the depiction of Perseus on this gem "is not only perhaps the finest single Classical study of the hero but one of the best engraved gems of its period." The robustly muscular hero is depicted nude, stepping forward on tiptoe on a short groundline as he silently approaches his prey, the Gorgon Medusa. He wears a winged diadem and winged sandals. His left hand is raised with his thumb angled towards his lips. In his lowered right he holds two spears, one with an attached sickle-shaped blade, the dorydrepanon. Over his right shoulder he wears a cloak that drapes over his arm and along his back, with two weighted corners descending behind, their edges in zigzag.

For Perseus this pose is unparalleled in Greek art, but the same was employed for the hero Diomedes on a chalcedony scaraboid in Boston, where the hero tiptoes forward, holding a sword and the Palladion (Boardman, Greek Gems and Finger Rings, pl. 596). The unusual variety of mottled red jasper is extremely rare.

Highlights from the acquisition include two of the greatest known ancient gems: a Roman intaglio portrait of Antinous, superbly engraved in black chalcedony circa 130-138 A.D., and a Roman amethyst ringstone with a portrait of Demosthenes, signed by the artist Dioskourides, circa late 1st century B.C.

The gem portraying Antinous, the young lover of the Emperor Hadrian (ruled 117-138 A.D.), was engraved on an unusually large black chalcedony stone. Depicted in the guise of a hunter, Antinous wears a cloak over his shoulders pinned in place by a circular fibula and carries a spear. His idealized facial profile features a rounded chin, full lips and thick hair arranged in luscious curls that cover his ears and fall along his neck. The extraordinary quality of the engraving has led many to proclaim this the finest surviving portrait of Antinous in existence in any medium and one of the finest classical gems to have survived since antiquity.

Lot 37. The Marlborough Antinous - A Roman Black Chalcedony Intaglio Portrait of Antinous, circa 130-138 A.D. Estimate USD 300,000 - USD 500,000. Price realised USD 2,115,000. © 2019 Christie’s Image Ltd

Cf. my post: Christie's to offer miniature engraved gems formerly in the G. Sangiorgi Collection

The extraordinary frontal portrait of Demosthenes, the 4th century B.C. Greek orator, is the other great masterpiece of the Sangiorgi collection. It is signed by the gem engraver Dioskourides, who is mentioned by ancient writers as the court gem engraver to the emperor Augustus (ruled 27 BC-AD 14) and is today regarded as one of the greatest gem engravers of Roman times. The intaglio image is cut so deeply that the impression stands out in unusually high relief, reading more like a statue in the round. Demosthenes wears a mantle over one shoulder and turns his head slightly to one side. The orator is bearded, with a full mustache framing his lips. His brows are knitted and his forehead creased, giving him a seriousness of expression appropriate to the subject of his famous Philippics. When it was in the collection of the Roman collector Lelio Pasqualini (1549-1611), the gem piqued the interest of every antiquarian, Grand Tour traveler, and glyptic scholar of the day, and its renown has only increased over time.

Lot 32. A Roman Amethyst Ringstone withe a portrait of Demosthenes signed Dioskourides, circa late 1st century B.C.; ¾ in. (1.9 cm.) long Estimate: $200,000-300,000. Price realised USD 1,575,000 Christie's Images Ltd 2019.

Cf. my post: Christie's to offer miniature engraved gems formerly in the G. Sangiorgi Collection

All seventeen gems will be featured as part of a special exhibition opening at the Getty Center in December highlighting recent acquisitions. Following that, they will go on view at the Getty Villa

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