Intaglio with Mithras and Abraxas at the Walters Art Museum

TNMM 544 ↔ CIMRM 2364

Horizontal rectangle hematite (1.9 x 2.7 x 0.4 cm), set in elaborate gold mounting. Baltimore, Waiters Art Gallery 42.868, formerly in Marlborough Collection.

Obv.: ’Bull to l., sacrificed by Mithra, who presses his r. knee upon its back, grasps a horn with his l.h. and slaughters the bull with a knife in his r.h., looking back as he does so. He wears Oriental dress, Phrygian cap, close-fitting ribbed tunic, scarf flying behind his shoulders and long closefitting trousers reaching to ankle. Below, a scorpion attacking the bull’s testicles and a long snake, head reared as if to attach the forelegs or chest; in front, a poorly executed dog. In the upper corners, l., head of moongoddess, below which is a small burning altar; at r. sun-god, below which are a crow with seed or small fruit in bill and another burning altar.

Rev.: The cock-headed god with serpent legs, head to l., whip in r.h., shield inscribed IAω on l. arm. Serpent coils rather more elaborate than usual.’

One side of this intaglio bears a depiction of the god Abrasax, a rooster-headed and snake-tailed Gnostic deity. He holds a whip in his right hand and a shield with “IAω” inscribed on it in his left. On the other side of the gem is Mithras, the Persian god of light, dressed in Phrygian clothing. He looks away as he slaughters the bull with a dagger held in his right hand. In the field to the right is a radiate head, identifiable as the sun god Sol, and to the left is the head of woman with a crescent, identifiable as the moon goddess Luna. There is an altar on each side, and one of which has a raven on it. Below are a snake, scorpion, and dog.

Museum purchase [formerly part of the Walters Collection], 1942.

Provenance

George Spencer, fourth Duke of Marlborough, Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, by 1817, by purchase [Marlborough nos. 278 and 287]; George Spencer-Churchill, fifth Duke of Marlborough, Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, 1817, by bequest; George Spencer-Churchill, sixth Duke of Marlborough, Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, 1840, by bequest; John Spencer-Churchill, seventh Duke of Marlborough, Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, 1857, by bequest; Sale, The Marlborough Gems, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 28 June 1875, pp. 44 and 46, lots 278 and 287; David Bromilow, Bitteswell Hall, Leicestershire, ca. 1875, by purchase; Julia Bromilow Jary, Bitteswell Hall, Leicestershire, 1898, by bequest; Sale, The Marlborough Gems Purchased by the Late David Bromilow, esq., Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 26 June 1899, p. 50, lot 278; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1899, by purchase [Dikran Kelekian as agent]; Sadie Jones (Mrs. Henry Walters), New York, 1931, by bequest; Joseph Brummer, Paris and New York, 1941, by purchase [Brummer inv. no. N5143a]; Walters Art Museum, 1942, by purchase.

Comments

Dominique PERSOONS

Presumably, this camay served as a buffer, so it was depicted upside down, with the moon on the left and the sun on the right.

Pattie L

It’s much bluer in person.

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