46. Roman intaglio of Thetis riding a hippocamp, c.1st century BC-early 1st century AD
Glass
Width 2.6cm, height 2.1cm
10569 IVP
£ 4,900
Intaglio made from clear yellow-green glass being pressed in to a mould. The scene shows the draped sea nymph Thetis ridding on a hippocamp, carrying the armour of Achilles across...
Intaglio made from clear yellow-green glass being pressed in to a mould. The scene shows the draped sea nymph Thetis ridding on a hippocamp, carrying the armour of Achilles across the waves. The oval intaglio is surrounded by a 19th century card border with a scalloped and gilded upper edge. Intact, some iridescence.
Thetis was the foremost of the fifty Nereids and mother to Achilles. Greek myth has it that on hearing her son's lamentations at the death of Patroklos, Thetis rose from the water and went to console him with promises of new armour so that he might seek vengeance on Hektor and continue his fight against the Trojans; "Yet, see now, your splendid armour, glaring and brazen, is held among the Trojans... I am coming to you at dawn and as the sun rises bringing splendid armour to you from the lord Hephaistos." (Homer, Iliad 18. 127 ff).
Thetis was the foremost of the fifty Nereids and mother to Achilles. Greek myth has it that on hearing her son's lamentations at the death of Patroklos, Thetis rose from the water and went to console him with promises of new armour so that he might seek vengeance on Hektor and continue his fight against the Trojans; "Yet, see now, your splendid armour, glaring and brazen, is held among the Trojans... I am coming to you at dawn and as the sun rises bringing splendid armour to you from the lord Hephaistos." (Homer, Iliad 18. 127 ff).
Provenance
G. Sangiorgi (1886-1965), Rome, ItalyPrivate collection, Monaco; from the above 1970s, thence by descent
Publications
Christie's, London, Antiquities, 5th July 2017, lot 87 (part)1
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