I thought I’d settled my mind on RRC 308/1 previously (two earlier posts). But now a Berlin glass paste has thrown open the question in my mind again.
The identify of the figure as one single Cantanaean brother seems confirmed by the symbol in the field, the triskeles, a symbol of Sicily.
This then got me thinking about arm and body positions. The outstretch arm echoes the representations of the father on the coins of Sextus Pompeius (RRC 511/3).
The Sextus coins bear a strong compositional resemblance to these bronze coins of Catana (date disputed). So strong in fact I might posit one or more pre existing local representations of monumental scale. The one big difference is that the father is holding a long slender object in his out stretch hand. No parallel object is held on the Sextus coins. BUT on the glass paste above there is a similar long slender object in the father’s opposite hand held close to the body.
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On these other coins of Catana (Katane) the mother’s arms are represented identical to the two coin types above, BUT the not the fathers. He holds his arms close to his body. There is a strong vertical element which could be the same rod like object seen above or might just be drapery as on the RRC 308/1.
Drapery is a keep design component in RRC 494/3:
The distinctive element of the glass paste illustrated above is the outstretch arms of BOTH father and son. I would interpret this as a visual reminder of the other brother and the mother, a beckoning gesture. What that stick thing is I’d dearly love to know…
All in all I’m back to being a little less sure of my reading of RRC 308/1…
Addendum.
Liv Mariah Yarrow 