Details
LOT 2987
Seleukid Empire, Demetrios II Nikator AR Tetradrachm. Struck 129-128 BC. Antioch on the Orontes mint.
Diademed and bearded head to right / ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΔΗΜΗΤΡΙΟΥ ΘΕΟΥ ΝΙΚΑ-ΤΟΡΟΣ, Zeus seated to left, holding Nike in his right hand and long sceptre with his left; Ξ to outer left, Δ beneath throne. SC 2166.2a; HGC 9, 1117b corr. (photo marked 1117a). Very Fine. Toned, areas of roughness and delaminations.(14.00gr, 30mm, 12h.).
Provenance
Acquired in the mid 1980s-1990s.
Private collection, Switzerland, thence by descent.
Private collection, since the late 1990s.
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If the harmony and the aristocratic inner peace of the portraits are the first thing that catches our attention, it is the extremely detailed rendering of the figures, especially on the reverse, that makes the viewer cling more to their admiration for this coin. Each depiction of Athena’s head in these emissions of Pharsalos makes us believe that she has her own character and that no two are the same, even though they share the same characteristics. Athena in our coin looks like a tender girl with a serious but innocent look in her eyes. Her divine power, despite her young age, is not violent; it is simply inherent in the serenity of her gaze. On the other hand, the detailed rendering of the cavalryman’s and horse's face, the texture of his chlamys, the harmonious matching of muscles and joints in the horse's body, and even the pronounced veins in the horse's belly convince us of a talented engraver and a gifted artist. -
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