Thanks for sharing your lions mauseus, and, I agree with
Peter, that ring is very very cool!!
I wish some day I could find another sample to add to my
collection.
I also agree with
Peter that in the Washington
gem Herakles has lost
his classical beauty, but please note that it was
engraved after 1040 AD, in times when the ancient grace of proportions was long-lost by that time; there is an incredible time-span between the two pieces; for the same reason I think that is much unlikely that the norman-swabian
gem and the
roman coin were both patterned after the same sculptural image. Probably the collected coin
type inspired the
gem engraver, also noting that norman-swabians were among the first low-medieval dynasts to recover the
symbols of ancient
Greece and
Rome, re-adapting them to their political purposes.
Peter, that creature
Herakles is squashing under
his foot is not a bird, that is a dragon, a
medieval representation of the Devil, in fact the norman-swabian
Herakles could represent at the same time the power of the
king, and
his role as defender of Christianity.
Bye friends
Nico