Lot 3029
Sicily, Naxos, c. 460 BC. AR Tetradrachm (16.42 g). Bearded head of Dionysos right, wearing wreath of ivy, hair tied in bunch behind head. Reverse: N-AXI-ON, nude and ithyphallic Silenos squatting facing, head left, holding kantharos in right hand, leaning on left. Cahn 54; SNG ANS 515; SNG Lloyd 1150; SNG Lockett 840; Gulbenkian 230-231; Rizzo pl. 28, 2; Jenkins 673; SNG Fitzwilliam 1108; Kraay-Hirmer 6 (all references same dies). Nicely toned, some light porosity with a small spot of horn silver below Selinos slightly smoothed. Struck from an earlier die state with no trace of the die break under the nose. One of the most celebrated coins from antiquity, a masterpiece of engraving. Choice Very Fine.
Naxos was the earliest of the Greek colonies in Sicily, having been founded around 735 BC by settlers who probably had originated from the Aegean islands. In addition, Naxos was the mother-city of the celebrated Sicilian communities of Leontini and Katana. In 476 BC, the entire population of Naxos was moved to Leontini by Hieron of Syracuse. They evidentally returned home some fifteen years later in 461 BC. It appears that this tetradrachm probably was struck to celebrate this event. This issue was struck from only one pair of dies, and is considered one of the true masterpieces of Greek art. Only about 75 examples of this important coinage are known to exist. The first example of the art of foreshortening.
As noted in the Hunt Auction Catalog:
The obverse is a superb head of Dionysus, engraved with a mastery and power equaled only by the unique tetradrachm now in Brussels of Aetna (the new name of Catana) with its head of Silenus; the similarity is so great and the artistry so exceptional that it is thought that both dies were the work of a single artist, the so-called Aetna Master. Here, for example, the way that the hair and beard overlap the surrounding circle enhance the sculptural quality of the head and give it extra depth. The reverse of the Naxian coin shows an equal triumph of the coin engraver's art; the stunning conception of the frontal view of a squatting Silenus, companion of Dionysus, and the technical brilliance of the engraving of the foreshortening limbs and muscles have no equal in Greek coinage.
Estimated Value $65,000 - 70,000.
Ex: Triton VIII (Jan. 2005), lot 70; Ronald Cohen Coll. Gorny & Mosch 112 (Oct. 2001), lot 4028; Nelson Bunker Hunt Collection IV (Sotheby's, June 1991), lot 79.
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