Harvard Art Museums > 1986.569: Scaraboid Stamp Seal: Stooping Youth Seals Collections Search Exit Deep Zoom Mode Zoom Out Zoom In Reset Zoom Full Screen Add to Collection Order Image Copy Link Copy Citation Citation"Scaraboid Stamp Seal: Stooping Youth , 1986.569,” Harvard Art Museums collections online, Dec 22, 2024, https://hvrd.art/o/289073. Reuse via IIIF Toggle Deep Zoom Mode Download This object does not yet have a description. Identification and Creation Object Number 1986.569 Title Scaraboid Stamp Seal: Stooping Youth Classification Seals Work Type seal Date late 6th century BCE Period Archaic period Culture Cypriot Persistent Link https://hvrd.art/o/289073 Physical Descriptions Medium Dark green jasper Technique Intaglio Dimensions 1.5 x 1.1 x 0.6 cm (9/16 x 7/16 x 1/4 in.) Acquisition and Rights Credit Line Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Damon Mezzacappa Accession Year 1986 Object Number 1986.569 Division Asian and Mediterranean Art Contact am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu Permissions The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request. Descriptions Description This green jasper scaraboid stamp seal features an image of a male youth leaning on a staff while stooping to adjust his sandal. The youth’s body is rendered with thick bands, with swells added to indicate musculature. His eye, nose, chin, and hair are all indicated, and he wears a rounded cap with a brim at the front. The image is enclosed by a simple border. A large chip is missing from the bottom of the image. This motif occurs on a handful of scarab and scaraboid stamp seals. A scarab in the Metropolitan Museum of Art provides a particularly close parallel (1). It has been identified as both Etruscan and Cypriot (2); however, since it was acquired by Luigi Palma di Cesnola, American consul on Cyprus from 1865 to 1877 and later first director of the Metropolitan Museum, it is more likely Cypriot, or perhaps Phoenician, in origin. The scaraboid in the collection of the Sackler Museum is thus likely also Cypriot. The male youth is sometimes identified as Theseus (3). According to legend, Theseus’ father Aegeus left his sword and sandals for his son to find under a huge rock. On this seal the youth reaches down for his ankle, thus drawing the viewer’s attention to his feet, and by extension his sandals. But there are a number of Greek myths involving sandals (4), and the youth on this seal is too generic for specific identification. NOTES 1. MMA 74.51.4221. 2. Etruscan: C. Weber-Lehmann, “These,” in Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologicae Classicae VII (Zurich, 1994) no. 4; Cypriot: A. T. Reyes, The Stamp-Seals of Ancient Cyprus (Oxford, 2001) no. 415. 3. Weber-Lehmann, “These,” no. 4. 4. M. Robertson, “Monocrepsis,” Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies 13 (1972) 39-48. Verification Level This record was created from historic documentation and may not have been reviewed by a curator; it may be inaccurate or incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
