A fine greek banded agate intaglio. Sleeping slave.

Second half of the 5th century B.C.

15x18x2 mm

Negro boy, sleeping, shown in front view, his head inclined to the left, both hands clasped on his right knee. He is nude, and has short curly hair. The legs are foreshortened; the right foot is in three quarter, the left one in profile. A small unguentarium is tied to his left foot, probably so as not to lose it or forget it when he wakes up, making this scene almost intimate. Dotted border. Use of globular elements. Extraordinary and rare depiction executed with fine style on a beautiful banded agate. Mirror polishing. Wear marks. As Richter described in the Metropolitan Museum catalogue a very similar gem, “A masterly rendering of a difficult pose. To appreciate the advance in naturalistic representation since archaic times, one must compare this design with that on the ring in the Cabinet des Médailles, my n. 85”. Parallels: J. Boardman, GGFR, n. 442 for the pose. For the subject in the same position: AGDS, Berlin, n. 92 and 160 (very close); J. Boardman, Engraved Gems from the Ionide Collection, n. 5 ("a squatting negro boy, with oil bottle and strigil, on a ground line and in a hatched border; Lippold pl. 66.8. G. M.A. Richter, Engraved gems of the greeks and etruscans. A history of greek art in miniature, n. 204. L.P.B. Stefanelli, La collezione Paoletti, n°61, T. IV, cassetto 1, p. 291.

Provenance: english private collection S.B., London, acquired on the London art market in 1969.