Heliotrope intaglio with Sol driving a quadriga

The oval stone with Sol, wearing a radiate crown and chlamys across his chest and billowing behind, driving a chariot, his left arm raised and holding an orb (?), the horses galloping to the left, on groundline

Period

Roman period, 2nd-3rd century A.D.

1.2x1.1 cm

Sternberg F. Auktion XXV, Antike Munzen Griechen, Romer, ByzantinIsche Munzen und Bleisiegel. Renaissance Medaillen. Geschnittene Steine und Schmuck der Antike. Antike Bronzen, Figuren und Objekte Gold und Silbermunzen. Numismatische Literatur: Antike Bis Neuzeit. Zurich 25-26 November 1991, 107, Taf. XXXIV no. 784
G.M.A. Richter, Engraved Gems of the Romans, London, 1971, p. 32, no. 85 for a similar depiction on a mottled agate intaglio at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. Cf. also a mottled jasper intaglio in the Metropolitan Museum, New York, for a comparable depiction of radiate Sol holding an orb, though here the quadriga faces frontally (acc. no. 81.6.297).

See G.M.A. Richter, Engraved Gems of the Romans, London, 1971, p. 32, no. 85 for a similar depiction on a mottled agate intaglio at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. Cf. also a mottled jasper intaglio in the Metropolitan Museum, New York, for a comparable depiction of radiate Sol holding an orb, though here the quadriga faces frontally (acc. no. 81.6.297)