Heliotrope gem in ancient gold mount: Anguipes (A) solar child on lotus (B)

PP-ID:

PP-1253

Classification:

gem, magical; necklace

Collection ID:

US-NY-MET-Med_58.12

Collection:

New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Department of Medieval Art

Collection Inventory:

58.12

Reference Numbers:

CBd, no. 1253

Former Collections:

Kalebdjian, Hagob and Garbis (Paris); Hirsch, Jacob (Lucerne); Hess, Adolph (Lucerne)

Material:

jasper, green and red; gold

Dimensions:

43 × 30 × 7 mm (gem with mount)

Date:

2nd c. AD (gem), 5th c. AD (necklace) (MET)

Iconography:

Anguipes, cock-headed; armour; mantle; shield, inscribed; whip; Ouroboros; solar child sitting on lotus flower; solar child seated with knees drawn up; hand raised to mouth; crown, unspecified; flail; lotus flower; lotus buds (2)

Divine Names & Voces:

voces, unidentified; vocales, in pterygoma form

Provenience:

Rome, Piazza della Consolazione

Heliotrope gem placed in a gold mount suspended from a gold necklace. Upright oval, both faces flat. (Shape 8–9).
Part of a hoard found in Piazza della Consolazione, Rome, during restoration work in 1910 (1908?).

Side A: Frontal view of a cock-headed Anguipes in armour and mantle. The figure's head is turned to the right, there is a whip in his raised right hand, and a shield in his left. The shield is inscribed in three lines: σλ|θρ|σχη. Greek inscription below the shield: ημουφ. Below the snake's legs, five lines of vocales in pterygoma form: ωωωωωωω|υυυυυυ|οοοοο|ηηηιιιι|εαε. The scene is encircled by an Ouroboros.
Side B: The solar child seated on a lotus flower with two buds, knees bent. He wears a crown and raises his right hand to his mouth, the left hand holds a flail. Greek inscription around, starting from top right: ροηωηυηω|ηηειηαιφρη.

The gold medallion depicts the busts of a couple, facing one another. A smaller, winged figure clad in a long robe (Jesus Christ? angel?) stands above the busts, holding a wreath in his outstretched hands above their heads.

Selected bibliography
• Age of Spirituality 1979 >>, no. 281.
• Vikan 1990 >>, 155–156.
• Zwierlein-Diehl 2019 >>, 331.