ClassificationsGreek and Roman Art
Intaglio Gem Depicting a Lynx Head
CultureGreek, Ptolemaic
PeriodHellenistic
Date1st Century BCE
MediumGarnet group, pyrope
Credit LineGift of the Estate of Michael J. Shubin
Dimensions7/16 x 3/8 x 3/16 in. (1.1 x 0.9 x 0.4 cm)
Object number2012.032.013
Label TextAccording to the Roman natural historian Pliny the Elder (23-79 CE), the lynx had the keenest eyesight of all four-legged animals (Natural History 28.122). On a gem, the lynx-motif therefore becomes a cipher for the miniaturist skill of the gem-engraver and the refined vision needed to appreciate glyptic art. Indeed, the 3rd-century BCE poet Posidippos of Pella, who wrote for the Ptolemaic royal court in Alexandria, described a gemstone engraved “by the sharp eye” of an artist called Lynceos with a chariot so tiny it could hardly be seen. Highly convex garnet intaglios were also favored by the Ptolemies, suggesting how the wearer of this gem may have exploited the same connection between the lynx and the gem-engraver’s craft to promote his or her own cultured sophistication.Exhibition HistoryMaking an Impression: The Art and Craft of Ancient Engraved Gemstones, Michael C. Carlos Museum, August 27 - November 27, 2022
MCCM Permanent Collection Galleries, November 7, 2023 - Present
ProvenanceEx coll. Michael Shubin (1950-2008), Montebello, California, purchased from Frank Sternberg AG, Zurich, Switzerland.
Status
On viewCollections
- Greek and Roman Art
mid 3rd Century BCE
2nd Century BCE
2nd Century BCE
1st Century BCE
1st Century BCE
3rd Century CE
1st Century BCE
1st Century BCE
1st Century BCE
1st Century CE
