Advanced Search 
Scarab with Iason/Jason being swallowed by the dragon
Italic, Etruscan
Early Classical Period
480–450 B.C.
Medium/Technique
Carnelian
Dimensions
Height: 16 cm (6 4/16 in.); width: 13 cm (5 1/8 in.); depth: 10 cm (3 15/16 in.)
Credit Line
Bartlett Collection—Museum purchase with funds from the Francis Bartlett Donation of 1912
Accession Number21.1203
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsJewelry, Ancient Greece and Rome
ClassificationsJewelry / Adornment – Scarabs and scaraboids
Catalogue Raisonné
Lewes House Gems, no. 046 (1920; 2002).
DescriptionDark, almost opaque, orange-red. Scarab with a flat, oval base engraved in intaglio; pierced lengthwise. Iason/Jason, helmeted and holding a shield on his right arm and a sword in his left, swallowed by the coiled dragon at right. Hatched border. Back carved as a beetle with a hatched border around the thorax and two lines dividing the elytra. Goffered head. Plastic, hatched legs. Plinth decorated with an egg pattern. Worn beetle. Small chips missing around the border.
ProvenanceBy 1896: with Edward Perry Warren (according to J. D. Beazley, The Lewes House Collection of Ancient Gems, no. 46: from the Bruschi collection at Corneto; bought in 1896); April 7, 1921: purchased by MFA from Edward Perry Warren for $ 30,000.00 (this figure is the total purchase price for MFA 21.1193-21.1221)