Του Γιώργου Λεκάκη
Ενώ η αρχική του εκτίμηση ήταν
1.283.519,99 ευρώ / 1.250.000
CHF
Επωλήθη από την NAC Auction
138 / 155 χθες 20.5.2021
αντί
4.517.990,36 ευρώ / 4.400.000
CHF…
Πρόκειται για έναν χρυσό στατήρα από το Παντικάπαιον της Ταυρικής Χερσονήσου / Κριμαίας, του 350 – 300 π.Χ. που εικονίζει τον θεό Πάνα και γρύπα…
Tauric Chersonesus, Panticapaeum.
Stater circa 350-300, AV 9.12 g. Facing bearded head of Pan, slightly l.
Rev. Π – A – N Griffin standing l., head
facing and its r. forepaw raised. Locker Lampson 122 = Gulbenkian 583 (these
dies). Gulbenkian 584 (this obverse die) and 580 (this reverse die). K.
Regling, Der Griechische Goldschatz von Prinkipo, ZfN XLI, 1931, 165 (this
obverse die). Jameson 2143. Gillet 851 (this coin).
Of the highest rarity, the finest specimen in private hands of very few
known. One of the
most important and desirable coins of the entire Greek World featuring a
portrait of
Pan of enchanting beauty, the work of an extremely talented master
engraver.
Perfectly struck and centred in high relief on a very large flan.
Good extremely fine
Ex F. Schlessinger XI, 1934, Hermitage duplicates part II, 102 and New York XXVII, 2012, Prospero, 213 sales. Previously privately purchased from Bank Leu in 1991. From the Buratschkof and Charles Gillet collections and from the Collection of a Man in Love with Art.
As the most powerful city in the Tauric Chersonesus with deep
involvement in the lucrative Black Sea grain trade, Panticapaeum and its
rulers, the Bosporan kings, were no strangers to gold coinage. Gold staters
were produced in the name of the city on both a local Bosporan standard (c.
9.1g) and the internationally-recognised Attic standard (c. 8.6 g) between c.
380 and 304 BC. These coins regularly featured the head of a satyr on the
obverse and a griffin with a spear in its mouth. While the former has sometimes
been misunderstood as a representation of Pan and therefore a punning reference
to the city, it has been shown that the features are actually those of a
nameless satyr and the head should probably be understood as a reference to the
Spartocid dynasty of Bosporan kings, whose real founder was a certain Satyros
I. The griffin type probably alludes to the mythical composite creatures who
were believed to guard the gold found in the mountains of Scythia. Although he
was a little skeptical of the reports he claims to have received from the
Scythians, Herodotus describes the griffins as neighbors to the Arimaspi, a
northern people each possessing a single eye in the center of their foreheads,
who made constant attempts to steal the gold (4.13.1). Pliny the Elder, who
accepted the story at face value, expanded it to note that the griffins made
their nests in burrows in the ground which contained gold nuggets and it was
these that the Arimaspi tried to take while the griffins were merely defending
their eggs and young (HN 7.2, 10.70). On the staters of Panticapaeum the head
of the satyr is always depicted in profile facing left except for one
spectacular and extremely rare issue for which the engraver decided to break
with custom and depict the satyr facing three-quarters left. He may have been
inspired to attempt this artistically difficult new treatment of the head under
the influence of a wider numismatic fashion for three-quarter facing heads on
Greek coins that developed at the end of the fifth and in the early fourth
century BC. The fashion appears to have been triggered by the exquisite
three-quarter facing head of Arethusa pioneered by Kimon during the period of
the signing artists at Syracuse, after which similar heads also began to appear
on coins struck by cities like Heracleia in Italy, Larissa in Thessaly, Aenus
in Thrace, Amphipolis in Macedonia, and even Persian satraps in Cilicia and
Samaria. However, of these, it is really only the three-quarter facing head
issue of Panticapaeum that is truly worthy of being placed directly beside
Kimon’s tetradrachm as a monument of Greek numismatic art. The extreme beauty
of this rare type of Panticapaeum has been charmingly summed up by Godfrey
Locker Lampson, whose specimen was struck from the same dies as this coin. As
he puts it, “The head of the satyr is a marvel of speaking portraiture. That so
much expression could be packed into so small a round would not be believed by
anyone who had not seen it.... If a single coin had to be selected from those
described in these pages, as by the greatest of all die-engravers, whoever he
may have been, whose work had lasted to the present day, the writer would
choose this one. Its creator has left no name behind him, but none but a
consummate artist of remarkable and original genius could have produced this
unforgettable and amazing little gem.” (Locker Lampson Collection, vii). It is
indeed a very great shame that there was no period of signing artists in the
Tauric Chersonesus similar to that of Syracuse and wider Greek Sicily. Then we
might know who this Panticapaean Kimon really was who managed to capture the
image of the satyr with such sublime skill and subtlety. The detailed treatment
of the facial features and the hair create the masterful illusion that the
engraver was working from life and that he had actually seen a satyr lurking
out in the wild lands of Scythia at the borders of the Chersonesus. The soulful
eyes and mouth of the satyr seem to carry a hint of surprise, almost as if he
had been suddenly caught unawares while wandering the woods in search of full
wine amphoras or pretty nymphs.The present coin represents an extraordinarily
rare example of the highest Classical Greek artistry. It is rendered all the
more remarkable by the fact that it was not produced in one of the great
bastions of culture and art like Athens or Syracuse, but rather at a distant
outpost at the northern edge of the known Greek world. The northern lands
beyond the limits of the Bosporan kingdom still retained their air of mystery
in the fourth century BC continuing down to the first century AD, when Pliny
the Elder was composing his Natural History. It was a place dominated by
Scythians and other peoples characterised as wild and savage in contrast with
the norms of Greek culture; a place where the fantastic still seemed possible
and amazing stories might not be entirely invented; a place where satyrs and
other spirits of the wilderness might still roam just outside the view of the
civilised. However, despite the obvious civilisation and refinement of the
engraver of the present stater, he has managed to catch a fleeting glimpse of a
satyr and preserve it for all time in beautiful lustrous gold. In our own age,
when science and technology have sucked so much of the wonder and appreciation
of the fantastic out of the world, we can only offer our deepest gratitude.
ΠΗΓΗ: NAC, ΑΡΧΕΙΟΝ ΠΟΛΙΤΙΣΜΟΥ, 21.5.2023.
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