Artistic Excellence

Sale: Triton XIII, Lot: 40. Estimate $30000.  Closing Date: Monday, 4 January 2010.  Sold For $40000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SICILY, Leontini. Circa 420-415 BC. AR Tetradrachm (17.47 g, 12h). Head of Apollo right, wearing laurel wreath / Head of roaring lion right; three barley grains and LEON-T-IN-O-N around; below, fish right. Boehringer, Münzgeschichte 66 (same dies); SNG ANS 253 (same rev. die); SNG Lloyd -; Rizzo pl. XXIV, 13 (this coin); McClean 2342 (same dies). EF, attractive cabinet gray toning with golden hues. Extremely rare, and the finest known.

Ex Numismatica Ars Classica 8 (3 April 1995), lot 137; R.A. von Every Collection (Leu 15, 4 May 1976), lot 82; Münzen und Medaillen AG 28 (19 June 1964), lot 50; Naville XVII (3 October 1934), lot 167.

This masterful tetradrachm, executed by a unknown artist, displays all of the craft of a master. His rendition of Apollo displays an economy and delicate balance with an attention to youthful perfection that belies the awesome power of the god, while, at the same time, places him within the context of humanity (unlike other examples), suggesting some living model. On the reverse, the bold and vigorous depiction of the lion conveys both the beast’s raw internal power and its external adherence to classical proportion, a balance between the wild and the cultivated that epitomizes the Classical ideal.