LOT 0159

Roman Carnelian Gemstone with Two Victories

4TH CENTURY A.D.

5/8 in. (1.64 grams, 17 mm).

The oval intaglio engraved with two winged Victories, facing each other in profile, wearing long garments crossed on the breast like a trabea consularis, both holding a staff-standard with a double forked tip.

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

Cf. a very similar winged Victory in a 7th century A.D. pendant with an ancient Roman gemstone, in Kornbluth, G., ‘The Transformative Power of the Metalwork Mount’ in Entwistle, C., Adams, N., Gems of Heaven, recent research on engraved Gemstones in Late Antiquity, c. AD 200-600, London, 2011, p.254, pl.21.

The iconography of two Victories facing each other is clearly from Late Antiquity and reflects the images of the two victorious empires - East and West - that, transformed into winged Nikes, are holding together the standard with the chi-rho (the two Greek letters forming the initials of the name of Christ), conceived as a long shaft topped by the Greek letter P (R) and the superimposed letter X.