Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah:
and I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in
understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, to
devise cunning works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass, and
in cutting of stones, to set them,” etc., “and to work in all manner
of workmanship.” This commission was for the Jews to adorn the ark of
the testimony and to attach to the Esod a part of the vestiture of the
grand sacerdotal of the Israelites. Our observation of this branch of
art has been strictly in accordance with our intended plan.
We have regarded almost solely all these beautiful stones in the light
of art, with a view of considering their comparative art-merits; yet
I have always seen in their history another and somewhat important
phase, to me an interesting one: that is, their connection with the
traditions, legends, and annals of religion. We find on them tenets of
paganism, mysticism, mythology, and the Christian religion--symbols,
dogmas, and pictured revelations of creeds of many nations and of
people almost otherwise unknown--what may indeed be classified as
religious stone-literature.
Skilful utilization of the colored strata and maculation of onyxes and
agates depict fire and water as objects of adoration; altars rendered
sacred by their inscriptions, each with its patron god upon it or
hovering near; characters there inscribed telling to whose service they
were dedicated--now to a supreme being beloved, though absent; again,
to a deity adored, though unseen.
Every tribe seems to have had a Father above, though we do not meet
with the vague superscription, “To the unknown God.”
On every side objects of veneration: the heavens; innumerable mention
of deities dwelling therein; plenteous aspirations and appeals to their
clemency, forbearance, and protection.
These talismanic gems, whenever they are religiously inscribed, I
treasure as tablets of faith--a faith which, though often erroneously
placed, was fervent and abiding as it was indelibly registered.
Rambling in many strange countries, seeing palaces, costumes, men,
and manners, this subject, paramount to them all, has often received
my attention--a theme the most precious to the scattered races of the
human family, their religion. It is worthy of remark that so large a
proportion of the intaglios and seals were of a religious character.
The ancient residents near the sea and on all the frontier of Asia
Minor had their religious token-gems.
In this day of enlightenment naturally we are astonished that men
could have believed in these gods or in such theories and dogmas, and
expressing astonishment that they could have trusted in these talismans
or hoped for benefits from them. We wonder at the absurd codes of
mythological religion; yes, let us call it so; that is what it was for
these people; they knew not our God, they had never heard of our divine
Master.
Until the revelation of Christ to us, man naturally had to look
somewhere for refuge for his soul; he had to cling to some unseen hand,
lest he should fall.
Do we often realize what modern Christianity is? These pagans, of whose
religions we have so many little stone monuments, were all anterior to
and existed during ages before that revelation.
Christians of to-day, reflect: all these heathen, as you no doubt
esteem them, were earnest in the performance of their duties, their
prayers, their adoration, and their sacrifices--many of them more
devout than some of us under the light of the twentieth century.
True, these religions were the inventions of men, the outcome of the
longings and yearnings of sympathetic men for a superior guiding and
protecting power--Deity, if you will allow it--to which to turn and in
which to hope.
They worshipped faithfully, adored sincerely, obeyed implicitly,
lived simple lives, in keeping with their primitive faith. Was it not
reasonable, this worship of a people who had no divine revelation?
Was it not beautiful? Can you not even now see something to admire
in devotional exercises held in God’s open air, turning in adoration
myriads of earnest eyes upon the Sun, “the beauty and the glory of the
day,” devoutly praising from the heart the majesty and the power of
the Supreme Being, the Maker and the Ruler of this benign light? Their
principal fête, on which they all assembled joyfully and gratefully to
bow before the glorious orb, was on the same day we have accepted as
the anniversary of the birth of Christ our Redeemer.
And so it was with those who venerated and carried engraved emblems of
those incomprehensible elements, Fire and Water.
As symbolic of the inscrutable power the Parsees keep a flame
constantly burning upon an altar in the inner temple; so sacred is
it that only the higher priests set apart for that service can
enter therein; yet through their mediation thousands participate
in the ceremony and enjoy the consolation of its power--a force of
terrible destructibility, yet with the genial phase which comforts and
contributes to the nourishment of man. This form of worship originated
in Persia, and when its disciples emigrated and distributed themselves
throughout many countries and islands of India and the shores of the
neighboring seas, they carefully carried the sacred fire with them;
and it is believed it has never ceased to burn during many centuries.
Red and spotted maculation in agates have been utilized by incisori to
represent the flame of an altar fire.
Even to this day many of these objects in stone are treasured and
valued by men and women in secluded villages in the East; they hold
and guard them as religious heirlooms. I have bartered with them
successfully, and have bought their bracelets, finger-rings, and
nose-rings; yet so highly have these sacred talismans been esteemed
that those which I most desired have rarely and only with difficulty
been obtained from their superstitious possessors.
In the two or three centuries succeeding the advent of Christ the
Abraxas flourished and engraved the mass of religious mystic talismans
(already described in their place in this book). Their priests or
pastors, in the term accepted by us, prepared these amulets, engraving
upon them attributes and symbols of the Most High; they taught their
followers to wear them close to their hearts, these reminders of their
heavenly Father, these rude glyptic lights that kept them nearer to
God. I do not, cannot, find it absurd. When you have considered this
subject as now presented, you will perhaps view with new interest these
devotional tokens, after many years of travel and research brought
together and classified in my cabinet.
[Illustration]
HISTORIC CAMEOS.
A large class of ancient seems were historical. In my collection may
be found a series of cameos, all works of the most able artists of the
epoch of Trajan, which are now esteemed in Rome as works of the highest
merit.
They portray the pleasures of the hunting expeditions, the wars, and
other incidents in the life of Trajan and Titus Vespasianus.
These cameos were the subjects of the _basso-rilievos_ which ornamented
a triumphal arch erected in honor of Trajan.
In the reign of the Emperor Constantine the Romans despoiled this
monument of all these subjects tributary to Trajan, and adorned with
them the arch which they then built for Constantine. It was said in
those days no emperor had ever equalled Constantine in building up the
Empire, and therefore they did not hesitate to dismantle a monument of
his predecessor.
SOMMERVILLE COLLECTION.
[Illustration:1347]
[Illustration:1348]
HISTORICAL CAMEOS.
An interesting historic cameo is Coriolanus visited by his mother
Veturia and his wife Volumnia. His original name was Marcius, but on
account of his valor in a contest against the Volscians he was surnamed
Coriolanus. In the time of a famine he was impeached for his
opinions in regard to the distribution of corn received from Sicily; he
was condemned to exile. He now went over to the Volscians, and became
general of their army, and successfully attacked the Romans; they,
fearing him, made advances to him and offered the restoration of all
his property and franchises; he resisted all their propositions. It was
not until his mother and wife came to him that he could be induced to
relent; their prayers and tears, however, moved him; he then retired
with his army, but passed the remainder of his life with the Volscians,
who had honored him for his valor and not from fear. The guard with a
shield at the right is a Volscian, and he at the left is a Roman.
[Illustration]
Observe in my collection an allocution of Marcus Aurelius before the
Prætorian Guard: the guard are not only known by their costume, but by
the banner which is marked S. C. (_Senatus Consultum_).
No incidents in ancient history are more interesting or more dramatic
than the episodes in the life and career of fair Cleopatra; one of
the most vivid to my fancy’s recollection is the scene of her fatal
giving up of that romantic life as depicted on a beautiful turquoise
cameo--No. 346.
It is well understood that many of the cameos concerning Christ are
truly historical. There is also Horatius defending the bridge. The
bridge was on the Tiber at Rome; Horatius was fighting the Etruscans;
the Romans were obliged to destroy their end of the bridge, when
Horatius with his horse swam back.
True, we have history through classic Latin sources of the most
important events of the first and second centuries. Yet these
portraitures on stone, executed in the very epochs, add certainly great
interest to the records of these times. The subjects on stone alluded
to, mirror to us more faithfully, more vividly, scenes in the lives of
several Roman emperors than any manuscript possibly could have done.
We have Trajan as emperor, judge, and warrior. We see him engaged in
conflict, we admire him victorious, we rejoice in his happy return to
Rome on several occasions; in his triumphant reception both by the
people and the army, and in the arches erected as souvenirs of his
prowess; in his dignified reception of the son of the King of the
Armenians, and in his condescension in restoring their kingdom; in
several of his expeditions against the Dacians, and in his happy
escape from the plot of Decebalus. We have instances of his public
charities delicately depicted in cameo; his religious sacrifices;
his exploits as a hunter of many wild animals, the boar and the lion
included, are exemplified. We have several beautiful groups with
emperors delivering allocutions before the cohorts of their armies,
senators, and other dignitaries; the triumphant entry of Titus
Vespasianus into Jerusalem, whereon twenty-two figures are visible,
and the exit from Jerusalem of his victorious army, on which nineteen
figures are seen; also the groups of Jewish prisoners.
SOMMERVILLE COLLECTION.
[Illustration: 1339]
[Illustration: 1350]
[Illustration: 1351]
[Illustration: 1349]
HISTORICAL CAMEOS.
All these pages in my stone book are certainly interesting additions to
ancient history.
ANIMALS AND BIRDS.
We have seen how large a proportion of the subjects on ancient gems
were mythological, how extended was the class of religious and of
Christian subjects; we have noted the loved portraits of sovereigns,
statesmen, philosophers, physicians, and poets.
There remains a series worthy of notice--those intaglios and cameos
worn as amulets on which were engraved innumerable animals, birds,
fishes, and even insects.
As the families of the nobility chose the insignia which entered into
the quarterings of their escutcheons, so the ancients according to
their superstitions or their tastes chose some patron animal or bird
for an emblem and caused it to be engraved on their talismans; and
these symbols were cherished with what might almost be termed religious
fervency.
They were used as amulets, supposed to protect the wearers against
accident and to repel danger. There was almost a pharmacopœia of gems,
with solace for every trouble of mind and a remedy for every disease.
A dolphin, the mariner’s friend, on sard or carnelian, was an emblem
worn by fishermen, and was believed to protect them from the attacks of
sharks or other voracious fishes. They also carried with equal reliance
the same design in antique paste.
The eagle of Jupiter is symbolic of his power, although it was
subservient to him. This no doubt accounts for its appropriation in
heraldry by sovereigns.
The raven, the friend of Apollo; the parrot, a loquacious inebriate, is
often an attendant on Bacchus.
The aringa, a fish of the Adriatic Sea, represented on a talisman in
my collection, was worn by women on account of its being the symbol of
fruitfulness; it deposits many thousand eggs each year.
Certain insects, arachnids, and reptiles were employed as symbols,
because they were supposed to protect man in each case from the enemy
thereon delineated.
A scorpion on a transparent stone was an amulet against the sting of
the arachnid.
As the scorpion inflicts a painful sting, the spider a venomous bite,
and a variety of flies make dangerous aggression on the human form,
their images engraved on stones were believed to shield the wearer from
the ills due to attacks from corresponding insects.
One of the most minute insects employed as a talisman is the ant,
symbolic of industry.
The peacock frequently appears on gems; naturally, no one would have
had it as an emblem of vanity, in which sense it is generally accepted
in modern times, but it was revered as the favorite of Juno.
The owl: Minerva’s head is at times draped with an owl; its connection
with Minerva is that it is symbolic of profound meditation.
Beautiful storks occur frequently on engraved gems: they were so
abundant in Asia Minor and in the Byzantine Empire that husbandmen
sought to frighten them away; yet in other lands they were almost
adored. In modern Fünen, and generally in Scandinavia, storks building
their nests on the roofs of houses in the country are welcomed as
bringing children for the household, and are cared for with a credulity
equalling pagan superstition.
The frog has sometimes found a place in Christian symbolism as the
most expressive image of the resurrection of the body, because frogs,
like the serpents after their winter interment, emerge from their
hiding-places and renew their youth by casting their slough.
Many farm and house companions figure in the series: a dog, fidelity; a
cock, vigilance; a turtle, always at home; a snail, there is no hurry;
a sheep, humility; a lamb, innocence; a horse, patience and endurance;
a dove, harmless, the Holy Spirit; a lion, majesty and force; a
serpent, wisdom, and, with its tail in mouth, eternity; a serpent was
often represented on the stone above the fireplace in Roman kitchens; a
ram was significant of the Nundine sacrifices made weekly to Jupiter;
a lion and a goat driven by Cupid, the power of love: he guides not
only the lascivious, but the strong.
[Illustration]
ANTIQUE PASTES.
The Antique Pastes are interesting from the fact that they present
us with many curious mythological subjects not always to be found on
semi-precious stones. They are specimens of a branch of early Roman
industry.
They were made in imitation of Oriental stones, of which the supply was
inadequate for the great demand of the first and second centuries A.
D., and also as a matter of economy. Often in ancient times a quantity
of fragments of hard semi-precious pebbles too small to be engraved
were pulverized, and the sand or granulated mass was fused in crucibles
just as glass is made. This process enabled many lovers of the art to
possess examples in this cheaper artificial substance when the same
subjects on real India stones were commanding exorbitant prices. Some
of these gems are beautifully opalescent and iridescent.
This iridescence, though so beautiful on the specimens of that kind, is
only owing to chemical action on the paste gems during the centuries
they have been buried in the earth. Interesting intaglios and cameos in
enamel have withstood the wear of ages, and are in better condition;
the imitations of red jasper are wonderful.
SOMMERVILLE COLLECTION.
[Illustration: 1183]
[Illustration: 1244]
[Illustration: 1288]
ANTIQUE PASTES.
Many intaglios in antique paste are representations in designs of
ancient bronzes, of which we have no other trace except their mention
by early historians.
The most precious antique example in paste is the Portland Vase. It
was discovered in the sixteenth century in a sarcophagus within the
monument of the Emperor Alexander Severus and his mother, Julia Mamæa,
on the Frascati road, about two miles and a half from Rome. It was long
known as the Barberini Vase, having belonged to that family in Rome
for two hundred years; thence it came to England in the last century,
and after twice changing ownership, at the death of the Duchess of
Portland, from whom it takes its name, it was sold to the Duke of
Marlborough, and is now in the British Museum. It has been broken and
mended. It is about ten inches high, and at the broadest part six
inches in diameter. It was formed of paste, and afterward engraved.
The paste is in imitation of onyx, in two strata, white upon blue, of
an amethyst tinge; the figures are cut in relief on the lighter color,
the blue forming the second plane or background.
Though the antique paste cameos and intaglios are largely reproductions
of subjects also found engraved on pietradura, we are indebted to this
class of gems for many examples of ancient cameos and intaglios which
we would otherwise never have seen; in fact, from the rare beauty of
some specimens in paste, they never could have existed in any other
material.
Not only do both intaglios and cameos in antique paste present us with
the choicest examples of miniature art, but the iridescence created on
them by time frequently renders them the most beautiful specimens in a
collection.
[Illustration]
MYTHOLOGICAL.
Through the possession of these Pagan cameos and intaglios we have
become heirs to the most thorough knowledge of Mythology.
Hundreds of distinct specimens may be gathered from glyptic work
centuries before Christ, and so arranged as to form several
genealogical trees.
In Mythology there is not one single ancestor of all, as in the
biblical history, where Adam is honored with being our original and
only progenitor and equally censured with being the testator of
our legacy of all human ills. The myriad bigamist ancestors of the
countless mythological beings pictured on ancient gems have created
and bequeathed to us numerous families of celestial and terrestrial
divinities, denizens of earth, air, and water, and hundreds of
grotesque chimeras.
Like the royal families of our sphere, there was much intermarriage of
close relatives, many of their offspring bearing at times the forms of
animals, birds, and anon reptiles. Some of their descendants were even
metamorphosed in those tropical climes into trees, under the cooling
umbrage of which other scions were born and commenced their adventurous
career.
These poetical conceptions were the mythological forerunners of the
simpler, purer, diviner religion which was eventually given to man.
A close observer may find in these legendary myths antetypes of the
omnipotent Godhead now revealed to us and in which is our sure hope and
trust.
[Illustration]
CHINESE, BURMESE, AND SIAMESE.
The Chinese are the only race producing glyptic work in relief on hard
Jade, and also on stones resembling it--in which one is easily deceived.
They are said to be good copyists: all designs given to them for
reproduction are copied very closely, but in what we find on engraved
stones there is the type of their nationality; it resembles nothing
else. Their work is mostly in very low relief, on Nacre, Jade,
Amethyst, and Agalmatolite.
Their pictured stones generally represent hideous animals, birds,
fruits, and views of paradise with figures of grotesque divinities.
Their inscriptions are not deeply incised, but are usually letters or
characters in their language in relief.
The exquisitely beautiful details often exhibited by the Chinese are
surprising, especially when we consider the hardness of the Jade, the
material principally employed by them.
What patience it must have required to cut those ornaments in Jade
which we find on their scepters and on the handles of their official
swords! Many pieces which are shown in museums have cost years of
laborious engraving. Jade has therefore been esteemed by the Chinese
as emblematic of all virtue.
In this connection it may be remarked that the Burmese and the
Siamese have seldom engraved on any stones harder than Alabaster
or Agalmatolite (Chinese figure stone). Their subjects principally
represent Buddha; occasionally his two feet; their emblematic flowers,
and their deeply-revered sacred Bôdhi-tree at Gaya.
[Illustration]
SOMMERVILLE COLLECTION.
[Illustration: 659]
AZTEC.
AZTEC OR MEXICAN.
The American Continent has contributed some unique work executed by the
Aztecs anterior to the Spanish conquest of Mexico.
Among the existing glyptic relics of nations we find no examples of
execution in stone-engraving more peculiar than what has been preserved
of the work of the Aztecs or Mexicans, especially that done before the
occupation by Pizarro.
The character of their work is so crude and distinct that no close
observer can for a moment be mistaken in detecting its origin.
I have met with Aztec engraved stones among a miscellaneous collection
offered to me for selection; there was that quality which enables a
connoisseur to recognize the class of ornamentation doubtless worn by
that people whom Prescott represented as decorated principally by gold,
silver, and feathers.
Large pieces, cameos of two and a half to three inches, have been
found which were worn by the Incas as breast ornaments, and are always
pierced, which shows that they were suspended from the neck.
In fact, some of the most faithful representations of costume,
head-dress, and weapons are in _basso-rilievo_ engraved stones in
opaque white Alabaster and pale-green hard Nephrite.
[Illustration]
RETROSPECTIVE.
We have much to enjoy as we survey the gems of the various epochs. The
multifarious types that have been gathered in forty centuries meet our
view, grouped in the tableau of engraved gems.
Our attention is drawn with interest to each sentiment expressed,
feature defined, or emotion portrayed. We study the diversified
qualities--the fineness or freedom of touch, ingenious effects,
delicate lines, choice attitudes, graceful forms, force, spirit, and
tenderness--which characterize these monuments of patience.
The engraved gems rescued from the torrent, ebbing and flowing with
the fluctuating fortunes of ages, garnered by successive generations,
enrich the traditional viaduct traversing the morass of many centuries.
Some blocks are less beautiful than others in the structure, but from
them we have founded our first footholds, and from them we mount to the
work that embellishes the great Etruscan arches even when we revel on
the finely pencilled coping-stones of the Greek and Roman epochs, or
admire the ornate abutments of the Renaissance, we should revert with
pleasure to the earlier, ruder contributions in the foundations, and we
can find pleasure in viewing and studying every part.
The builder’s stones are graven--the footway is of pictured pebbles,
miniatures, amulets, and seals, reflecting lineaments and traces of the
history of entombed generations. Their inscriptions reveal to us the
impress of ancient, mediæval, and modern art.
[Illustration]
INDEX.
Abraxas or Gnostics, 58-62, 102
Talismans, 58, 102
Agalmatolite, 123
Amethyst, 123
Amulets, 112
Animals and Birds, 112-115
Ant, the, as a talisman, the most minute, 113
Antique Pastes, 116-120
Apollo, 66
Aringa, the, a fish of the Adriatic Sea, 113
Ashurna Sirbal, King of Assyria, palace of, 22
Asshur (Assyrian), Supreme God, 32
Assyrian Records, 39
Astarte, 66
Aztec or Mexican, 127-128
Bacchus and Ariadne, 89-90
Basilidians, 62
Beltis Mylitta (Assyrian), the Great Mother, 32
Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, 72
Bôdhi-tree at Gaya, 124
British Museum, London, 72, 119
Buddha, 124
Byzantine, 68-75
Period, 11
Cameos, 55, 68, 72, 87, 89, 90, 94, 104, 112, 116, 119, 127
Historical, 55, 104
Religious, 11
Catharine II., Empress of Russia, 87, 94
Charles V., Emperor, 86