Gold finger ring engraved with an image of Hermes

Gold finger ring engraved with an image of Hermes

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The broad oval bezel of this heavy gold ring is engraved with an intaglio showing the youthful messenger-god Hermes balancing on his left leg as he fastens a wing to his raised right foot. The god wears a short mantle that encircles his neck and hangs down his back. Winged sandals or boots are a standard attribute of Hermes, but it is unusual to find the wings attached to the figure's ankles rather than to some form of footwear. Since its first publication over a century ago, this ring has been associated with a notable sculptural type in monumental Greek sculpture, the Sandal-Binder Hermes, traditionally ascribed to the sculptor Lysippos. Echoes of this particular composition, showing the god tying or untying his winged sandal, appear in decorative arts as well, notably on coins of Sybrita, in Crete, dated to the late fourth century B.C. Our ring, however, can be stylistically grouped with a handful of accomplished late Classical gold rings from Magna Graecia, which is in fact the alleged findplace of our piece (Tarentum in southern Italy).

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Gold finger ring engraved with an image of HermesGold finger ring engraved with an image of HermesGold finger ring engraved with an image of HermesGold finger ring engraved with an image of HermesGold finger ring engraved with an image of Hermes

The Museum's collection of Greek and Roman art comprises more than thirty thousand works ranging in date from the Neolithic period (ca. 4500 B.C.) to the time of the Roman emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity in A.D. 312. It includes the art of many cultures and is among the most comprehensive in North America. The geographic regions represented are Greece and Italy, but not as delimited by modern political frontiers: Greek colonies were established around the Mediterranean basin and on the shores of the Black Sea, and Cyprus became increasingly Hellenized. For Roman art, the geographical limits coincide with the expansion of the Roman Empire. The department also exhibits the art of prehistoric Greece (Helladic, Cycladic, and Minoan) and pre-Roman art of Italic peoples, notably the Etruscans.