Sale: Triton XII, Lot: 105. Estimate $30000.  Closing Date: Monday, 5 January 2009.  Sold For $22500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SICILY, Syracuse. Second Democracy. 466-405 BC. AR Tetradrachm (17.16 g, 6h). Struck circa 415-405 BC. Charioteer, holding kentron in right hand and reins in both, driving fast quadriga left; above, Nike flying right, crowning charioteer with open wreath; grain ear in exergue / Diademed head of Arethusa right, wearing earring and necklace, hair in ampyx and sphendone; [ΣVP]-A-KO-Σ-IΩ-N and four dolphins around. Tudeer 63 (V22/R41); SNG ANS 281; Rizzo pl. XLVII, 10 (same dies); BMC 221 (same dies); Boston MFA 414 = Warren 382 (same dies); Gulbenkian 285 (same dies); Jameson 108 (same dies). EF, toned, typical edge splits. Fine style head of Arethusa, from dies of exceptional artistic merit.

By the middle of the 5th century BC, the situation in Sicily previewed much later developments in Renaissance Italy, where local princes engaged in continual warfare among themselves, while employing the services of the finest contemporary artists and craftsmen. Wars required significant amounts of money to hire mercenaries, and the increasing cultural sophistication of the courts encouraged artistic experimentation – the result was the patronizing of some of the most talented coin engravers in history. In Syracuse and surrounding cities, the anonymous "Demareteion Master" and the "Maestro della foglia" were followed by their students and successors - Choirion, Euainetos, Eumenos, Exakestidas, Herakleidas - all of whom proudly signed their works. These masters developed new ways of viewing the world through art, breaking the static forms developed in Archaic and early Classical art, thereby developing new methods of portraying motion and life in miniature. The silver tetradrachm was the preferred denomination for such expression, providing a sufficient canvas upon which these artists had free-range to play.

At Syracuse, these artists infused the standard typology - the victorious charioteer and the head of Arethusa - with a vigorous lifelike quality that stands among the finest works of numismatic art. The chariot scene was transformed from a two-dimensional view to a dynamic three-dimensional perspective, with the horses arrayed in a manner to give the viewer the impression that the horses are emerging from the field. On the reverse, the previously stoic and sedate profile of Arethusa was now imbued with an individuality. Although her adornments varied in the way her hair was kept and the kind of earrings she wore, the vitality of her countenance now offered a radiant immortality. Although we are most familiar with the artists who signed their dies, some of the finest dies were left unsigned. The present coin, although unsigned, is an excellent example of the highest art of this period.