I just needed a minute with my discipline before I address the mess. It’s 7.45 am and I refuse to feel any guilt about a little research indulgence.
Above we have a cast of gem from the Medici collection now in Florence, of the original the Louvre catalogue says:
Italie – Florence : Musée archéologique – N° inv. 14952. Intaille en améthyste. Buste de guerrier de face, barbu, casqué, tenant une lance et un bouclier. Identifié comme Hannon, Jugurtha ou Massinissa (?). Ancienne collection Médicis.
I’m most curious about how this identification was made, by whom, and when.
Apparently there was a similarly identified gem in the Poniatowski collection, a garnet not an amethyst, or so Beazley tells me without any image.
The same volume contains an illustration of a early modern gem on the theme of RRC 426, the surrender of Jurgurtha to Sulla, a gem now in the BnF.
Ok. It is 8.09 am and I should stop playing with Databases. Perhaps I’ll drop more Jugurtha and the gems here later.
Liv Mariah Yarrow 