Pernille Klemp
Pernille Klemp
Production Date
No earlier than 30 BC - No later than 150Type of Work / Object
Signet Ring > Paste Gem
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Location
Inventory Number
I755
Catalogue Number
I755Catalogue Level / Collection
Thorvaldsen's Collections > Collection of Gems (I)
Explanation
- The signet shows the sea monster Scylla, who together with the monster Charybdis guarded a narrow strait. On his way home from the Trojan War, Odysseus sailed through the strait, and Scylla killed six of Odysseus’s men. The upper part of Scylla’s body is that of a woman, while the lower part is in the form of two fish tails entwining the bodies of two men. The monster holds a ship’s rudder in her hands, swinging it at the men in order to crush them. This signet is a so-called paste, i.e. a cast of a gem or a cameo in molten glass. Pastes were used in signet rings as a replacement for the more expensive precious stones or as objects to be incorporated into collections of gems. This example dates from the two first centuries of the Roman Imperial Age. The motif is designed in the Hellenistic-Roman style, which took its inspiration from the Classical and Hellenistic periods of Greek art.
Motif / Theme
Material
Glass
Version / Edition
Glass Cast
Dimension
- Height 2.2 cm
- Width 1.7 cm
Art Form / Craft
Stonemasonry / Stonecutting
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Acquisition Mode
Bequest from Bertel ThorvaldsenAcquisition Date
March 24, 1844