LOT 0138

Roman Carnelian Gemstone with Farmer and Oxen

1ST-2ND CENTURY A.D.

3/8 in. (0.38 grams, 10 mm).

The oval intaglio engraved with a man driving a pair of oxen with plough to left, a detailed tree with branches in the background, ground line under the oxen.

Acquired in the late 1980s-early 1990s.
Important North West London collection.

Cf. no.633 of the Lost Gems of the Malborough collection, for a similar scene, in Boardman, J., The Malborough Gems. Formerly at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, Oxford, 2009; cf. also Various, Catalogue of the Malborough Gems, being a collection of Works in Cameo and Intaglio formed by George, Third Duke of Malborough, Oxford, 1875, no.633.

The gem could refer to the Augustan program of restoration of peace and security in the empire, after the agitated period of civil wars, with the possibility for men to return peacefully to their lands in a now peaceful empire. However, we cannot exclude that the image also refers to the well-known episode of Greek mythology, when Odysseus, to escape the call to arms in Troy, feigned madness by ploughing the fields without interruption, until he was unmasked by Palamedes, cousin of Agamemnon, who placed Odysseus' infant son Telemachus in front of the plough, forcing Odysseus to stop and reveal feigned insanity.