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Description: | Material: GarnetHeight: 20mm, width: 17mm, weight: 14.5gCondition: Fracture on the dome of the head with several cracks and small chips. Chipped at the neck on the right. The short neck is polished with a shallow line engraved at the front. This was probably already cut down from a longer neck in Antiquity when it was most likely inserted into a bust made of another precious material.Description: A miniature head of Socrates. He is shown bearded, with a bald pate and with long hair at the back. He has a round face with characteristically prominent cheekbones and brow, and with a short stubby nose. These features appear already in the earliest depictions of Socrates (type A and type B) in the 4th century BC (see P. Zanker, Die Maske des Sokrates. Das Bild des Intellektuellen in der antiken Kunst (Munich 1995); I. Scheibler, Rezeptionsphasen des jüngeren Sokratesporträts in der Kaiserzeit', JdI 119 (2004) 179-258; I. Scheibler, Zum ältesten Bildnis des Sokrates', MüJb 40 (1989) 7-33).This version of Socrates, however, is more loosely based on the two types - composite characteristics are the commonest form of the depiction in Roman times (see also J. Lang, Mit Wissen geschmückt? Überlegungen zur bildlichen Rezeption griechischer Dichter und Denker in der römischen Lebenswelt am Beispiel kleinformatiger Bildwerke (Cologne, forthcoming 2012) chapter 2.2.2). The shape of the head is rounder, three lines are incised on the forehead. The ears are not covered by the long sinuous hair at the back. The carefully engraved curly beard comes to a point under the chin and on both sides of the face and the ends of the beard hair curl into little loops. The sideburns are short with only a small wave and the upper lip is obscured under the short, almost straight moustache. The lower lip is turned slightly down at the ends and shows the mouth slightly open. The upper lids are arched high and the irises are drilled at the top of the eye.Portraits of philosophers were a popular subject on engraved gems (intaglios and cameos) made from precious and semi-precious stones (see also C. Wagner and J. Boardman A Collection of Classical and Eastern Intaglios, Rings and Cameos (Oxford, 2003) 96).Date: 1st century BC -1st century AD.
Original Image | Publisher: | http://finds.org.uk | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Identifier: | http://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/r... | Go to resource |
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