1. Artemide Aste
  2. Artemide 60E (3-4 September 2022)
  3. Greek Coins
Highly Plastic Style
Lot 83:
Greek Italy. Bruttium, Kroton. AR Stater, c. 380-350 BC. Obv. Head of Hera Lakinia facing slightly right, wearing decorated stephane. Rev. [ΚΡΟ]ΤΩΝΙ[ΑΤΑΣ] Naked Herakles, sitting left on rock covered with lion's skin; he holds a cup in his extended right hand and club in left hand; below, bow. SNG ANS 374; HN Italy 2167; SNG Lockett 630. AR. 7.18 g. 22.00 mm. RR. Very rare. A choice example for issue, from masterlfully engraved dies, bright and nicely toned, with a hint of iridescence. VF. ”The highly plastic quality of the reverse type, the rendering of the vigorous body, suggests the likelihood that this numismatic image reflects a statuary prototype. Such details as the inclination of the head, the lowering of the extended arm until it almost rests upon the right thigh, and the foreshortened left leg appear to be concessions made by a skilled die- cutter in adapting a three-dimensional plastic type to a flat, circular field. This hypothesis is strongly reinforced by the analogy between the numismatic type and a group of statues commonly considered to be replicas of the Herakles Epitrapezios of Lysippos. The relationship is so striking that one is forced to conclude that Lysippos either based his work upon an earlier numismatic type whose plastic potentialities he divined or, what is far more probable, that he derived his conception from an older statuary type which is also reflected on the coinage of Croton.”
(Phyllis Lehman in her 1946 study of statuary on Greek coins , p.40).
Start price € 700
Current price € 1100
Bids: 8
No more available for sale.