An roman agate cameo mounted on a modern gold ring. A youth on a seagoat.

2nd - 3rd century A.D. ...

An roman agate cameo mounted on a modern gold ring. A youth on a seagoat.

2nd - 3rd century A.D.

Cameo : 12 x 18 mm Ring : 23 x 19 mm 5,60 g

A naked youth riding a capricorn (goat-fish). He claps one of the creature's horns and is fishing with a rod, which curves as it catches a small fish. He is sitting on a hide with a serrated edge. An interesting parallel, very similar, is a refined sardonyx cameo from the Beverly collection (Alnick castle), dated 30 BC and identified as the young Octavian Augustus (whose zodiac sign was Capricorn) in the allegory of the victory of the naval battle of Actium (31 BC). The victory was in fact celebrated on the cameos. However, the figure also seems close to the models of the satyr-pan, as in this case, whose marked features of the face and youthful musculature seem to express. The cameo, mounted in a swivel gold ring, has damaged edges and the figure is missing a foot. The piece clearly shows signs of ancient wear and an ancient execution with marked and spontaneous engraver lines, certainly inspired by a precise model as for the Beverly cameo. Well composed scene. Interesting iconography. Rare.

Parallels: D. Scasbrick, C. Wagner, J. Boardman, The Beverly Collection of gems at Alnick Castle, p. 11 n. 6.

U.K private collection, London