Intaglio Gem Depicting Septimius Severus, Caracalla, and Victory before an Altar

AAT Object Techniqueintaglios (sculptural objects)

AAT Object Form/Functionfigures (representations)

AAT Object Form/Functiongems (worked stones)

CultureRoman

PeriodImperial, Severan

Dateca. 209-212 CE

MediumCrystalline quartz, var. rock crystal

Credit LineGift of Ward and Company

DimensionsMaximum: 1 × 1 × 1/4 in. (2.5 × 2.5 × 0.6 cm)

Object number2003.025.002

Label TextThis now-fragmented intaglio depicts the emperor Septimius Severus and his son Caracalla extending their right hands towards an altar. Septimius is crowned from behind by a winged Victory (now lost).

A hand (of Victory) crowns him with a laurel wreath from behind. Facing him, and also extending his right hand towards the altar, is a youthful Caracalla, wearing a toga and laurel wreath and holding a scepter. He is crowned from behind by a winged Victory. Above the altar is a diminutive figure of Serapis, holding a scepter and wearing a modius (woven basket) headdress. In the exergue beneath the groundline, an inscription in Greek: EUTYCHOS ('Good Fortune').

The figure of Victory standing behind Caracalla has been carved over what was originally a representation of his brother Geta. The top of Geta's head, also wearing a laurel wreath, is still visible behind that of Victory, as is his profile, which has been abraded. The left edge of Geta's drapery, his forward foot, and a scepter and rotulus that he held can also be made out, extending beyond the edge of Victory's drapery.
Exhibition HistoryMCCM Permanent Collection Reinstallation, September 2004 - October 28, 2013
Making an Impression: The Art and Craft of Ancient Engraved Gemstones, Michael C. Carlos Museum, August 27 - November 27, 2022
Published ReferencesEric R. Varner, Mutilation and Transformation: Damnatio Memoriae and Roman Imperial Portraiture (Boston: Brill, 2004), 77, 172, 277-78, figure 174a.
Michael C. Carlos Museum: Highlights of the Collections (Atlanta: Michael C. Carlos Museum, 2011), 58-59.
Eric R. Varner, "Destructive Aesthetics: Mutilating Portraits in Ancient Rome," in Negotiating Memory from the Romans to the Twenty-First Century: Damnatio Memoriae, ed. Oivind Fuglerud, et al. (New York: Routledge, 2021), 205, figure 9.6.
Andrew G. Scott, An Age of Iron and Rust: Cassius Dio and the History of His Time (Leiden: Brill, 2023), cover.

ProvenanceEx coll. Martine Comtesse de Behague (1870-1939), Paris, France. Thence by descent to Hubert de Ganay (1888-1974), France. Thence by descent. Gifted to MCCM by Michael Ward [Ward & Company, Works of Art, Inc.], New York, New York.

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Not on view

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