Roman Lapis Lazuli Gnostic Gemstone with Aphrodite Anadyomene

4TH-5TH CENTURY A.D.

5/8 in. (1.38 grams, 17 mm).

Ellipsoid in plan with enigmatic Greek legend 'BPE/IMW' to underside, facing figure of Aphrodite Anadyomene to obverse on baseline with Greek legend 'APE IAP', possibly an abbreviation for ΑΡ[ΌΡΙΦ]ΡΑ[Σ]Ι[Σ].

Provenance

Private collection, acquired on the German art market in 1993; thence by descent.

Literature

Cf. Faraone, C.A., 'Text, Image and Medium, The Evolution of the Graeco-Roman Magical Gemstones' in Entwistle, C., Adams, N., Gems of Heaven, recent research on engraved Gemstones in Late Antiquity, c. AD 200-600, London, 2011, pp.50-61, pls.11-12, for similar gemstones.

Footnotes

The gemstone belongs to a series of blue gemstones, usually of lapis lazuli or blue glass, showing the famous image of Aphrodite Anadyomene ('rising from the sea'). In some of these gemstones, we find the magical word arôriphrasis, which transliterates an Egyptian title of the goddess Hathor as 'The Lady of the Blue Stone'. Since Hathor and Aphrodite were assimilated in Graeco-Roman Egypt, there is some logic to the appearance of the name and Aphrodite on these stones.

CONDITION

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LOT 0044