A very fine late hellenistic carnelian intaglio. Bust of Bacchante.

End of 2nd - Beginning 1st century B.C.

17 x 23 x 3 mm

The figure is turned to the left, with the three-quarters bust seen from behind covered by a goat fur stopped by a round fibula on the shoulder; the head is in profile, with a thick and very detailed hair, decorated with small bunches of grapes and berries; braids descend on the neck. The face is characterized by a slightly sunken eye and a slightly open mouth, in the typical expressive rendering of late Hellenistic works. In this case it is a work referable to the Ptolemaic context and which presents a particularly close parallel with a carnelian intaglio of the Cabinet des Medailles, identified as a portrait of a Ptolemaic princess as a bacchante. Both carvings seem to come exactly from the same atelier. Wear marks.

Parallels: M.L. Vollenweider, Camées et intailles. Tome I. Les Portraits grecs du Cabinet des médailles, p. 146 n. 140.

U.K., private collection 80's.