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Greek coins. Naxos. Chalcidian drachm ca 500, AR 5.74g.

Currency:CHF Category:Coins & Paper Money / Coins: Ancient Start Price:40,000.00 CHF Estimated At:50,000.00 CHF
Greek coins. Naxos. Chalcidian drachm ca 500, AR 5.74g.
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Greek coins. Naxos. Chalcidian drachm ca. 500, AR 5.74g. Ivy-wreathed head of Dionysus l., with pointed beard and hair in form of dots, falling in waves over neck. Rev. NAXION Bunch of grapes hanging from stalk between two leaves. SNG ANS 514. Rizzo p. 153, fig. 36, VII (these dies). Cahn –, obverse V 33, reverse R 39. Very rare. A pleasant specimen of this appealing and prestigious issue of fine archaic style. Old cabinet tone and about extremely fine. Ex LHS 95, 2005, 507 and Stacks 14 January 2008, Lawrence R. Stack collection, 2094 sales. The coinage of Naxos is especially useful as a guide to Greek art style on coinage down to about 400 B.C. The four major issues present different styles of art-a feature unequalled in so compact a manner at any other Greek mint. This first issue is fully Archaic, the second, attributed to the Aetna Master, combines the qualities of the late Archaic and the early Classical, the third is fully Classical, and the fourth offers a significantly different version of a familiar composition, as Dionysus is shown as an effeminate young man with his hair drawn into a bun at the nape of the neck. It is hard to imagine a more perfect male head of the Archaic age than the one on this early coin of Naxos. It compares so favourably with Athenian Black Figure paintings of c. 575-525 B.C. (especially works of Heidelberg Painter) that we must be seriously consider them to be source of inspiration for this engraver. We should also see this coin as an archaising effort, as naturalism of form had already begun to find its place in Greek art by the time this coin was struck. The viewer's attention is drawn to the eye, mouth, nose and cheek of Dionysus, as they are perfectly rendered and are framed by the roughly hewn hair and spearlike beard. The reverse is interesting for its comparative simplicity: an ideal composition is achieved with the grape cluster and the peripheral decoration of the vine, leaves and ethnic. By representing the grapes in full, yet the grape leaves only in outline, the engraver has added an arresting twist to his design.