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Lot Essay
The beetle is carefully carved with a hatched thorax, with hatching or chevron on the legs. The plain gold hoop is round in section, terminating at each end in a lion’s paw, with a plain wire threaded through the beetle and the terminals, and coiled back around the hoop. On the underside of the beetle is a careful study of an Amazon, crouching on one knee, with the other bent, her foot resting on a short groundline. She wears a long-sleeved undergarment only visible by the curved lines near her wrists, indicating the ends of the sleeves. Over that she wears a short chiton, cinched by a clasp between her breasts, and belted, with the hem drawn up in waves across her thighs, revealing her pudendum. High on her head she wears a crested Corinthian helmet, with a fringe of hair below the rim in the form of drilled pellets across her forehead, and a longer mass falling along her neck. She also wears a circular earring. Her right arm is lowered and bent forward at the elbow, holding her bow with her index finger and thumb projecting forward; her left is bent with the hand centered below her breasts, holding an arrow, her index finger and thumb likewise projecting forward. Behind her is her quiver, full of arrows and a second bow. In the field before her the gem is inscribed with the name ΤΕΙΣΙΣΤΡΑΤΟ. The scene is enclosed by a hatched border.
J. Boardman considered this gem among “the ‘top hundred’ of antiquity” and a brilliant, even sensual study of femininity under arms (see “Introduction,” p. 12 in G.M. Bernheimer, op. cit.). The gem is attributed to an artist whose work has been assembled under the modern pseudonym the Semon Master, who takes his name from an agate scarab in Berlin inscribed ΣΗΜΟΝΟΣ (“of Semon”), likely the name of the owner. Boardman assigned ten scarabs and scaraboids to this artist (see Archaic Greek Gems, p. 94, nos. 249-258), to which can be added a blue chalcedony scaraboid with a siren (sold Christie’s New York, 18 December 1998, lot 223) and a white chalcedony scaraboid also depicting an Amazon, from the Sangiorgi Collection (p. 21, no. 14 in Boardman and C. Wagner, Masterpieces in Miniature: Engraved Gems from Prehistory to the Present). The distinctive treatment of the facial details of the Borowski Amazon is matched by the others in the group. Closest is a carnelian gem in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston which depicts Achilles spearing the Amazon Queen Penthesileia, who shares the same long-sleeved undergarment worn together with a cinched and belted chiton, as seen here. Boardman thought it likely that the name ΤΕΙΣΙΣΤΡΑΤΟ could be that of the artist rather than the owner of the gem.
J. Boardman considered this gem among “the ‘top hundred’ of antiquity” and a brilliant, even sensual study of femininity under arms (see “Introduction,” p. 12 in G.M. Bernheimer, op. cit.). The gem is attributed to an artist whose work has been assembled under the modern pseudonym the Semon Master, who takes his name from an agate scarab in Berlin inscribed ΣΗΜΟΝΟΣ (“of Semon”), likely the name of the owner. Boardman assigned ten scarabs and scaraboids to this artist (see Archaic Greek Gems, p. 94, nos. 249-258), to which can be added a blue chalcedony scaraboid with a siren (sold Christie’s New York, 18 December 1998, lot 223) and a white chalcedony scaraboid also depicting an Amazon, from the Sangiorgi Collection (p. 21, no. 14 in Boardman and C. Wagner, Masterpieces in Miniature: Engraved Gems from Prehistory to the Present). The distinctive treatment of the facial details of the Borowski Amazon is matched by the others in the group. Closest is a carnelian gem in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston which depicts Achilles spearing the Amazon Queen Penthesileia, who shares the same long-sleeved undergarment worn together with a cinched and belted chiton, as seen here. Boardman thought it likely that the name ΤΕΙΣΙΣΤΡΑΤΟ could be that of the artist rather than the owner of the gem.