LOT 0401

Silver-Gilt Mounted Jet 'Figa' Amulet

SPAIN, 17TH CENTURY A.D.

2 1/4 in. (19.6 grams, 56 mm).

Formed as a hand showing figa gesture, silver mount with applied twisted wires; attachment loop and ring to the top.

Private collection, Europe.
Acquired on the English art market.

Mano Fico, as protective amulets, have been used since antiquity. It was believed to protect from the evil eye and other dark and magical forces and to promote fertility. In ancient Rome, the fig sign, or mano fico, was made by the pater familias (father of the family) to ward off the evil spirits of the dead as a part of the Lemuria ritual. The ancient Greeks wore amulets of the gesture around the neck to protect from the evil eye, and also used the gesture in artwork. What they considered an overtly sexual gesture was expected to distract evil spirits from causing harm. The pendant would have been worn from a belt or from a chatelaine containing other protective talismans. This carving would have served as a token representing a person's pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, one of the very few places in which jet can be found and mined since at least the Middle Ages.