Tazza Farnese
The Tazza Farnese is a cameo made from sardonyx . It has a diameter of 20 cm and is now in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples Inv. 27611. It is considered a masterpiece of this genre and one of the main works of Ptolemaic- Alexandrian art.
Representations
The back of the Tazza Farnese depicts a Gorgoneion . On the front, on the left, you can see the personification of the Nile , who is leaning against a tree and holding a cornucopia in his hand. Opposite him are two nymphs , one with a cornucopia, the other drinking from a bowl. In the upper area you can see two flying wind gods. At the very bottom lies a sphinx and above it a woman who probably represents Isis - Demeter . In the middle of the cameo is Triptolemus .
The interpretation and dating of this scene and the object are not entirely certain. Possibly the cameo was made after a famine in 187 BC. Manufactured. Isis-Demeter would then be Cleopatra I. The Nile symbolizes prosperity and wealth, Triptolemos the regained power of the Nile. The sphinx is the symbol of the Ptolemaic royal family.
History of the Tazza Farnese
The modern history of the cameo is particularly interesting. It may have been in Constantinople in the Middle Ages, and after the city was sacked during the 4th Crusade, it came west. It was in the possession of Frederick II and came from there to Central Asia, because in the early 15th century it must have been at the court of the Timurids in Central Asia. From there comes a drawing of the Tazza Farnese, signed by Mohammed al-Khayyam , which surprisingly reproduces the scene on the front. How the Tazza Farnese got to Central Asia is unknown. Mohammed al-Khayyam is documented there for the early 15th century. A little later it was owned by Pope Paul II. Via Pope Sixtus IV , it then came into the possession of Lorenzo il Magnifico , from there to the Palazzo Farnese and then to Naples.
literature
- Günter Grimm : Alexandria. The first royal city in the Hellenistic world. Pictures from the metropolis on the Nile from Alexander the Great to Cleopatra VII. Von Zabern, Mainz 1998, ISBN 3-8053-2337-9 , pp. 120–121, fig. 114a – d.
- Erika Simon : Alexandria - Samarkand - Florence - Rome. Stations of the Tazza Farnese. In: Helmut Altrichter (editor): Pictures tell history (= Rombach Sciences. Series Historiae. 6). Rombach, Freiburg (Breisgau) 1995, ISBN 3-7930-9121-X , pp. 15-28.
- Marina Belozerskaya : Medusa's gauze. The Extraordinary Journey of the Tazza Farnese. Oxford University Press, New York NY et al. 2012, ISBN 978-0-19-973931-8 ( review in the American Journal of Archeology ).
Web links
supporting documents
- ↑ two dates in the first pre-Chr. Century ( Memento from January 2, 2011 in the Internet Archive )