73. Achilles of Pamphilus, copied from the antique.
74. Eros and Psyche, by Pichler.
75. Head of Athena.
76. Athena, from Townley Bust by Marchant.]
After the Persian conquest the victors adopted the cylinder form of the
conquered, and continued to use it. A Persian cylinder seal of Darius
(probably about 500 B.C.) in the British Museum shows the king in his
chariot, transfixing a lion with his arrows, in a palm wood. Above is
the winged emblem of the Persian deity Ahuramazda. The inscription gives
the name and titles of Darius in the Persian, Scythic and Babylonian
languages. The style is accurate and minute. The idea of the lion hunt
is borrowed from the Assyrian monuments, but the engraver has been
careful to make the necessary changes of costume and treatment. The
cylinder was, as might be anticipated, imitated to a certain extent by
peoples of the Eastern world in touch with Babylonia. It occurs in
Armenia, Media and Elam. It has been found in Crete (_British School
Annual_, viii. p. 77) and is frequent in the early Cypriote deposits. In
some instances it has been found unfinished and therefore must be
supposed to be of local manufacture. Sometimes a direct imitation of
cuneiform characters occurs on the Cypriote cylinders. The same form was
also employed by the Phoenicians (about the 8th century-7th century
B.C.). By the Greeks and Etruscans it was used, but only rarely, and by
way of exception.
_Egypt._--We must go back to the remotest periods for the origin of
intaglio engraving in Egypt. Recent discoveries of tombs of the earliest
dynasties at Abydos and Nagada have thrown much light on the early
stages of Egyptian art, and have revealed the remarkable fact that in
Egypt (as in Babylonia) the cylinder was the earliest form used for the
purpose of a seal. The cylinders that have been found are comparatively
few in number; but a large number of jar-stoppings of clay are preserved
on which cylinder designs have been rolled off while the clay was still
soft. Such early incised cylinders as are extant are made either of hard
wood or (as in an instance in the British Museum) of stone. The identity
of form has been thought to indicate a connexion with Babylonia, but
none can be traced in the designs of the respective cylinders.
The Egyptians of the earliest dynasties had an admirable command of hard
stones, as shown by their beads and stone vases, but with the exception
of the cylinders quoted they are not known to have applied their skill
to the production of intaglios. At this early period the scarab (or
beetle) was still unknown as a gem-form. It was only about the time of
the 4th dynasty that the scarab (q.v.) was first introduced, and
gradually took the place of the cylinder as the prevailing shape.
The _Scarabaeus sacer_ (Egyptian, _Kheperer_), rolling its eggs in a
ball of mud, became the accepted emblem of the sun-god, and so the form
had an amuletic value. Scarabs of obsidian and crystal date back to the
4th dynasty. Others, coarse and uninscribed, belong to the beginning of
the first Theban empire. After the 18th dynasty they are counted by
thousands. While the beetle form was naturalistically treated, the flat
surface underneath was well adapted to receive a hieroglyphic sign. The
scarabs, however, are by no means the only product of the art. We have
also figures of all kinds in the round and in intaglio--statuettes,
figures of animals and of deities, and sacred emblems such as the ankh
(or _crux ansata_) and the eye. Among interesting variations from the
scarab form is the oblong intaglio of green jasper in the Louvre
(_Gazette arch._, 1878, p. 41) with a design on both sides. It
represents on the obverse Tethmosis (Thothmes) II. (1800 B.C.) slaying a
lion, and identified by his cartouche. On the reverse we have the same
king drawing his bow against his enemies from a war chariot. The scarabs
of Egypt though uninteresting in themselves, considered as examples of
engraving, have this accidental importance in the history of art, that
they furnished the Phoenicians with a model which they were able to
improve as regards the intaglio by a more free spirit of design,
gathered partly from Egypt and partly from Assyria. The scarab thus
improved exercised a lasting influence on the later history, since, as
will be seen below, it was adopted and modified both by Greeks and
Etruscans.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.--Jewish High Priest's Breastplate.]
_Engraved Gems in the Bible._--While the Phoenicians have left actual
specimens to show with what skill they could adopt the systems of
gem-engraving prevailing at their time in Egypt and Assyria, the
Israelites, on the other hand, have left records to prove, if not their
skill, at least the estimation in which they held engraved gems. "The
sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron and with the point of a
diamond" (Jerem. xvii. 1). To pledge his word Judah gave Tamar his
signet, with its cord for suspension, and staff (Gen. xxxviii. 18);
whence if this passage be compared with the frequent use of "seal" in a
metaphorical sense in the Bible, and with the usage of the Babylonians
of carrying a seal with an emblem engraved on it recorded by Herodotus,
it may be concluded that among the Israelites also every man of mark at
least wore a signet. Their acquaintance with the use of seals in Egypt
and Assyria is seen in the statement that Pharaoh gave Joseph his signet
ring as a badge of investiture (Gen. xli. 42), and that the stone which
closed the den of lions was sealed by Darius with his own signet and
with the signet of his lords (Daniel vi. 17). Then as to the stones
which were most prized, Ezekiel (xxviii. 13), speaking of the prince of
Tyre, mentions "the sardius, the topaz and the diamond, the beryl, the
onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald and the carbuncle,"
stones which again occur in that most memorable of records, the
description of the breastplate of the high priest (Exodus xxviii. 16-21,
and xxxix. 8-14). Twelve stones grouped in four rows, each with three
specimens, may be arranged on a square, so as to have the rows placed
either vertically or horizontally. If they are to cover the whole
square, then, unless the gold mounts supplied the necessary
compensation, they must be cut in an oblong form, and if the names
engraved on them are to run lengthwise, as is the manner of Assyrian
cylinders, then the stones, to be legible, must be grouped in four
horizontal rows of three each. There is in fact no reason to suppose
that the gems of the breastplate were in any other form than that of
cylinders such as abounded to the knowledge of the Israelites, with this
possibility, however, that they may have been cut lengthways into
half-cylinders like a fragmentary one of sard in the British Museum,
which has been mounted in bronze, and, as a remarkable exception, has
been set with three small precious stones now missing. It could not have
been a seal, because of this setting, and because the inscription is not
reversed. The names of the twelve tribes, not their standards, as has
been thought, may have been engraved in this fashion, just as on the two
onyx stones in the preceding verses (Exodus xxviii. 9-11), where there
can be no question but that actual names were incised. On these two
stones the order of the names was according to primogeniture, and this,
it is likely, would apply to the breastplate also. The accompanying
diagram will show how the stones, supposing them to have been cylinders
or half-cylinders, may have been arranged consistently with the
descriptions of the Septuagint. In the arrangement of Josephus (iii. 7.
5) the jasper is made to change places with the sapphire, the amethyst
with the agate, and the onyx with the beryl, while our version differs
partly in the order and partly in the names of the stones; but probably
in all these accounts the names had in some cases other meanings than
those which they now carry. It must be remembered that we have two
series of equivalents, namely, the Hebrew compared with the Septuagint,
and the Greek words of the Septuagint compared with the modern names,
which in many cases, though derived from the Greek, have changed their
applications. From the fact that to each tribe was assigned a stone of
different colour, it may be taken that in each case the colour was one
which belonged prescriptively to the tribe and was symbolic, as in
Assyria, where the seven planets appropriated each a special colour [see
Brandis in _Hermes_, 1867, p. 259 seq., and de Saulcy, _Revue
archéologique_, 1869, ii. p. 91; and compare Revelation xxi. 12, 13,
where the twelve gates, which have the names of the twelve tribes
written upon them, are grouped in four threes, and 19, 20, where the
twelve precious stones of the walls are given]. The precious stones
which occur among the cylinders of the British Museum are sard, emerald,
lapis lazuli (sapphire of the ancients), agate, onyx, jasper and rock
crystal.
_Gem-Engraving in Greek Lands._--We must now turn to the history of
gem-engraving in Greek lands. The excavations in Crete in the first
years of the 20th century revealed a previously unknown culture, which
lasted on the lowest computation for more than two thousand years, and
was only interrupted by the national upheavals which preceded the
opening of Greek history proper. (See CRETE; ARCHAEOLOGY; and AEGEAN
CIVILIZATION.) Throughout the whole period the products of the
gem-engraver occupy an important place among the surviving remains. It
must suffice, however, in this place to indicate the chief groups of
stones.
The earliest engraved stones of Minoan Crete are three-sided prism
seals, made of a soft steatite, native in S.E. Crete (_Journ. of
Hellenic Studies_, xvii. p. 328). These are incised with pictorial signs
evidently belonging to a rudimentary hieroglyphic system, and are dated
before 3000 B.C. At a period placed by A.J. Evans between 2800 and 2200
the method was fully systematized and employed on the signets, as well
as on tablets and other materials. This development of the hieroglyphic
system was accompanied by an increasing power of working in hard
material, and cornelian and chalcedony superseded soft steatite (_Journ.
of Hell. Studies_, xvii. p. 334).
Towards 2000 B.C. a highly developed linear form began to supersede the
pictorial signs. It is abundant on the tablets, but the gems thus
inscribed are comparatively rare. The linear form in turn died out some
six hundred years later.
The signs of the pictorial script incised on the gems are
representations of objects, expressed with precision, but giving little
scope for the higher side of the gem-engraver's art. Simultaneously,
however, with the use of the script, a high degree of skill was acquired
by the engravers in rendering animal and human forms. Scenes occur of
ritual observance, hunting, animal life, and strange compounded forms of
demons. The excavations did not yield a large number of original gems of
this class, but a great number of clay sealings from such signets were
discovered. That they were synchronous with the use of the forms of
script described above is proved by the fact that in the palace at
Cnossus deposits were found, both in the linear and the hieroglyphic
script, sealed with these signets, the seal impressions being again
endorsed in the script (_Brit. School Annual_, xi. pp. 56, 62). For a
remarkable group of sealings found at Zakro see _Journ. of Hell.
Studies_, xxii. pll. 6-10. The finest naturalistic engravings are placed
towards the close of the "Mid-Minoan" and beginning of the "Late-Minoan"
periods (about 2200-1800 B.C.). During the progress of the "Late-Minoan"
period the subjects tended to assume a more formal and heraldic
character. The forms of stones in favour were the disk convex on each
side (lenticular or lentoid stones), and during the "Mid-Minoan" period,
elaborate signets in the form of modern fob-seals. Apart from the use of
intaglios for sealing, the excavations have shown that the Cretan
lapidaries were largely employed in the working of gems for purposes of
decoration. Fragments of lapis lazuli and crystal for inlaying (the
crystals having coloured designs on their lower surfaces) were found in
the throne room at Cnossus; the royal gaming-board, also from the palace
at Cnossus, had inlaid crystal disks and plaques. The workshop of a
lapidary, with unfinished works in marble, steatite, jasper and beryl,
was also found within the precincts of the palace (_Brit. School
Annual_, vii. pp. 20, 77). Examples were also found of work in relief,
substantially anticipating the art of cameo-cutting.
[Illustration: FIG. 2.--Lenticular Rock-Crystal from Ialysus. (Brit.
Mus.)]
The area over which the Cretan influence extended was wide. Its
manifestations in Greek lands proper, first revealed by Schliemann's
excavation of the royal tombs of Mycenae, ran parallel with and
outlasted the later periods of the Cretan culture to which it stood in
close relation (see AEGEAN CIVILIZATION). Its gems and intaglio works in
gold are known to us from the finds at Mycenae, and at analogous sites,
such as Menidi, Vaphio and Ialysus. They have much in common with the
finer class of Cretan stones already described. The engraved gems fall
principally into two groups in respect of form, namely, the lenticular
(or lentoid) stones already mentioned, and (more rarely) glandular
stones, so called from their resemblance to a _glans_ or sling bolt. A
Cretan fresco shows a figure wearing an agate lenticular stone suspended
from the left wrist. The finer specimens of the Aegean gems are engraved
with the wheel and the point in hard stones, such as chalcedony,
amethyst, sard, rock-crystal and haematite. A lapidary's workshop
similar to that at Cnossus has been found at Mycenae, with a store of
unused gems, and an unfinished lenticular stone (_Ephemeris
Archaiologikè_, 1897, p. 121). The characteristic of the Aegean engraver
is the free expression of living forms. His subjects are figures of
animals, men and demons in combat, and heraldic compositions recalling
the Gate of Lions at Mycenae. It was almost inevitable that the scarab
should be found in the Cretan and Aegean deposits, but in such cases we
have the Egyptian scarab directly imported, and not, as at a later
period, non-Egyptian adaptations of the form. The cylinder also (except
in Cyprus, the borderland between east and west) only occurs as an
importation, and not as a currently manufactured shape.
[Illustration: FIG. 3.--Lenticular Sard from Ialysus. (Brit. Mus.)]
_The "Island Gems."_--The Aegean culture was swept away probably by that
dimly seen upheaval which separated Mycenaean from historical Greece,
and which is commonly known as the Dorian invasion. One of the few facts
which indicate a certain continuity of tradition in later Greece is
this, that we again find the same characteristic forms, the glandular
and lenticular stones, in the cemeteries, of Melos and elsewhere. It is
only recently that archaeologists have learnt to distinguish between the
later lenticular and glandular stones "of the Greek Islands," as they
are commonly called, and those of the Aegean age. Engravings of the
later class are worked in soft materials only, such as steatite. They
have not the power of expressing action peculiar to the Aegean artist.
In general, the continuity of tradition between the gems of the
Mycenaean and the historical periods is in respect of shape rather than
of art. The subjects are for the most part decorative forms (the
Gryphon, the winged Sphinx, the winged horse, &c.) in course of
development into characters of Greek myth.
_The Phoenicians and the Greeks._--About the end of the 8th and
beginning of the 7th century B.C. the Phoenicians began to exercise a
powerful influence as intermediaries between Egypt and Assyria and the
Mediterranean. Porcelain and other imitations of Egyptian ornaments,
and especially of Egyptian scarabs, are found in great numbers on such
sites as Amathus in Cyprus, Camirus in Rhodes, in Etruria, and at
Tharros in Sardinia. The Egyptian hieroglyphics are imitated with
mistakes, the figures introduced are stiff and formal, the animals as a
rule heraldic. The scarab form, which in Egypt had had its sacred
significance, was now become nothing more than a convenient shape for an
object of jewelry or for the reverse side of a stone. It was adopted
from the Phoenicians both by Greeks and Etruscans. By the Greeks, with
whom we are at present concerned, its use was occasional, and about 500
B.C. it was superseded by the scarabaeoid. Under this name two forms,
somewhat similar but independent in origin, are usually grouped without
sufficient discrimination. The scarabaeoid proper is a simplification of
the scarab, effected by the omission of all details of the beetle. But
many of the stones known as scarabaeoids, with a flat and oval base and
a convex back, are in respect of their form probably of North Syrian
origin (so Furtwängler). The earliest examples of archaic Greek
gem-engraving (other than the later "Island gems" already described) are
works of Ionian art. They show a desire, only limited by imperfect power
of expression, to represent the human figure, though the particular
theme may be a god or other mythical personages. By the beginning of the
5th century the engravers had reached the point of full development, and
the scarabaeoids of the time embody its results. As an example of fine
scarabaeoids the Woodhouse intaglio of a seated citharist (fig. 5; _Cat.
of Gems in Brit. Mus._ No. 555) may be quoted as perhaps the very finest
example of Greek gem-engraving that has come down to us. It would stand
early in the 5th century B.C., a date which would also suit the head of
Eos from Ithome in Messenia (fig. 6). The number, however, of fine
scarabaeoids known to us has been considerably increased in recent
years. They are marked by a broad and simple treatment, which attains a
large effect without excessive minuteness or laboured detail. In these
respects the style has something in common with the reliefs of the 5th
century.
[Illustration: FIG. 4.--Victory. Early Greek Scarab. (Brit. Mus.)]
[Illustration: FIG. 5.--Citharist. Early Greek Scarabaeoid. (Brit.
Mus.)]
[Illustration: FIG. 6.--Head of Eos. (Brit. Mus.)]
_Literary History._--The literary references to the early gem-engravers
are no longer of the same importance as before in view of the fuller
knowledge we possess as to the quality of early gem-engraving, but it is
necessary that they should be taken into account.
The records of gem-engravers in Greece begin in the island of Samos,
where Mnesarchus, the father of the philosopher Pythagoras, earned by
his art more of praise than of wealth. "Not to carry the image of a god
on your seal," was a saying of Pythagoras; and, whatever his reason for
it may have been, it is interesting to observe him founding a maxim on
his father's profession of gem-engraving (Diogenes Laërt. viii. 1, 17).
From Samos also came Theodorus, who made for Polycrates the seal of
emerald (Herodotus iii. 41), which, according to the curious story, was
cast in vain into the deep sea on purpose to be lost. That the design on
it was a lyre, as is stated in one authority, is unlikely, at least if
we accept Benndorf's ingenious interpretation of Pliny (_Nat. Hist._
xxxiv. 83). He has suggested that the portrait statue of Theodorus made
by himself was in all probability a figure holding in one hand a graving
tool, and in the other, not, as previously supposed, a quadriga so
diminutive that a fly could cover it with its wings, but a scarab with
the engraving of a quadriga on its face (_Zeitschrift für die
österreich. Gymnasien_, 1873, pp. 401-411), whence it is not
unreasonable to conclude that this scarab in fact represented the famous
seal of Polycrates. Shortly after 600 B.C. there was a law of Solon's
forbidding engravers to retain impressions of the seals they made, and
this date would fall in roundly with that of Theodorus and Mnesarchus,
as if there had in fact been at that time a special activity and unusual
skill. That the use of seals had been general long before, in Cretan and
Mycenaean times, we have seen above, and it is singular to find, as
Pliny points out (xxxiii. 4), no direct mention of seals in Homer, not
even in the passage (_Iliad_, vi. 168) where Bellerophon himself carries
the tablets on which were written the orders against his life. From the
time of Theodorus to that of Pyrgoteles in the 4th century B.C. is a
long blank as to names, but not altogether as to gems, the production of
which may be judged to have been carried on assiduously from the
constant necessity of seals for every variety of purpose. The references
to them in Aristophanes, for example, and the lists of them in the
ancient inventories of treasures in the Parthenon and the Asclepieion at
Athens confirm this frequent usage during the period in question. The
mention of a public seal for authenticating state documents also becomes
frequent in the inscriptions. In the reign of Alexander the Great we
meet the name of Pyrgoteles, of whom Pliny records that he was no doubt
the most famous engraver of his time, and that Alexander decreed that
Pyrgoteles alone should engrave his portrait. Nothing else is known of
Pyrgoteles. A portrait of Alexander in the British Museum (No. 2307),
purporting to be signed by him, is palpably modern.
From literary sources we also learn the names of the engravers
Apollonides, Chronius and Dioscorides, but the date of the
last-mentioned only is certain. He is said to have made an excellent
portrait of Augustus, which was used as a seal by that emperor in the
latter part of his reign and also by his successors. Inscriptions on
extant gems make it probable that Dioscorides was a native of Aegeae in
Cilicia, and that three sons, Hyllos, Herophilus and Eutyches, followed
their father's occupation. We have also a few scattered notices of
amateurs and collectors of gems, but it will be seen that for the whole
period of classical antiquity the literary notices give little aid, and
we must return to the gems.
[Illustration: FIG. 7--Scarabaeioid by Syries. (Brit. Mus.)]
_Early Inscribed Gems._--Various early gems are inscribed with proper
names, which may be supposed to indicate either the artist or the owner
of the gem. In some cases there is no ambiguity, e.g. on a scarab is
inscribed, "I am the seal of Thersis. Do not open me"; and a scarabaeoid
(fig. 7) is inscribed, "Syries made me." But when we have the name
alone, the general principle on which we must distinguish between owner
and artist is that the name of the owner is naturally meant to be
conspicuous (as in a gem in the British Museum inscribed in large
letters with the name of Isagor[as]), while the name of an artist is
naturally inconspicuous and subordinate to the design.
The early engravers known to us by their signatures are: Syries, who was
author of the modified scarab in the British Museum, mentioned above,
with a satyr's head in place of the beetle, and a citharist on the
base--a work of the middle of the 6th century; Semon, who engraved a
black jasper scarab now at Berlin, with a nude woman kneeling at a
fountain filling her pitcher, of the close of the 6th century; Epimenes,
who was the author of an admirable chalcedony scarabaeoid of a nude
youth restraining a spirited horse--formerly in the Tyszkiewicz
Collection, and of about the beginning of the 5th century. But better
known to us than any of these artists is the 5th-century engraver,
Dexamenus of Chios, of whose work four examples[1] survive, viz.:--
1. A chalcedony scarabaeoid from Greece, in the Fitzwilliam Museum at
Cambridge, with a lady at her toilet, attended by her maid. Inscribed
[Greek: DEXAMENOS], and with the name of the lady, [Greek: MIKÊS].
2. An agate with a stork standing on one leg, inscribed [Greek:
DEXAMENOS] simply.
3. A chalcedony with the figure of a stork flying, and inscribed in two
lines, the letters carefully disposed above each other, [Greek:
DEXAMENOS EPOIE CHIOS].
4. A gem, apparently by the same Dexamenus, is a cornelian formerly
belonging to Admiral Soteriades in Athens, and subsequently in the
collection of Dr Arthur Evans. It has a portrait head, bearded and
inscribed [Greek: DEXAMENOS EPOIE].
[Illustration: FIG. 8.--Greek Sard. 5th Cent. B.C. (Brit. Mus.)]
The design of a stork flying occurs on an agate scarab in the British
Museum, from the old Cracherode Collection, and therefore beyond all
suspicion of having been copied from the more recently discovered Kertch
gem.
For the period immediately following that early prime to which the gems
above described belong, our materials are less copious. Some of the
finest examples are derived from the Greek tombs in the Crimea and South
Russia. Reckoned among the best of the Crimean gems, and that is
equivalent to saying among the best of all gems, are the following: (1)
a burnt scarabaeoid with an eagle carrying off a hare; (2) a gem with
scarab border and the figure of a youth seated playing on the trigonon,
very much resembling the Woodhouse intaglio (both engraved, _Compte
rendu_, 1871, pl. vi. figs. 16, 17). In these, and in almost all Greek
gems belonging to this period of excellence, the material is of
indifferent quality, consisting of agate, chalcedony or cornelian, just
as in the older specimens. Brilliant colour and translucency are as yet
not a necessary element, and accordingly the design is worked out solely
with a view to its own artistic merit. The scarab tends to die out. The
scarabaeoid in its turn is abandoned for the simple ring stone. The
subjects chosen take by degrees a different character. Aphrodite (nude),
Eros, children and women tend to replace the older and severer themes.
The motives of 4th-century sculpture appear by degrees on the gems.
[Illustration: FIG. 9.--Amethyst Pendant. (Brit. Mus.)]
_Etruscan Gems._--At this point it is convenient to discuss the
gem-engraving of the Etruscans, which came into being towards the close
of the archaic period of Greek art. In the early Etruscan deposits, such
as that of the Polledrara tomb in the British Museum (towards 600 B.C.),
we find nothing except Phoenician imports of porcelain or stone scarabs,
both strongly Egyptian in character. During the 6th century a few of the
semi-Egyptian stones of Sardinia make their appearance. But in the
latter part of the century these oriental products tend to die out, and
we have in their place the native works of Etruscan artists. These
engravings stand in the closest relation to Greek works of the close of
the 6th century and many imported Greek scarabs also occur.
The Etruscan scarab has its beetle form more minutely engraved than that
of the Greeks. It is further distinguished in the better examples, alike
from the Greek and the Egyptian form, by a small border of a sort of
petal ornament round the lower edge of the beetle. Like the earlier
Greek scarabs it has the cable border round the design, but the border
continued in use in Etruria when it had been abandoned in Greece. The
scarabaeoid form does not occur in Etruscan deposits. Etruscan engraving
begins when Greek art was approaching maturity, with studies, sometimes
stiff and cramped, of the heroic nude form. Some of the Greek deities
such as Athena and Hermes occur, together with the winged personages of
Greek mythology. To the heroic types the names of Greek legend are
attached, with modifications of form, such as [Greek: TYTE] for Tydeus,
and [Greek: KAPNE] for Capaneus. Sometimes the names are appropriate and
sometimes they are assigned at random. The subjects include certain
favourite incidents in the Trojan and Theban cycles (e.g. the death of
Capaneus); myths of Heracles; athletes, horsemen, a few scenes of daily
life. Certain schemes of composition are frequent. In particular, a
figure too large for the field, standing and bending over, is made to
serve for many types. The engraving of the finer Etruscan gems is minute
and precise, marked with elegance and command of the material. Its fault
is its want of original inspiration. Special mention must be made of a
very numerous group of cornelian scarabs, roughly engraved for the most
part with cup-shaped sinkings (whence they are known as gems _a globolo
tondo_) roughly joined together by furrows. Notwithstanding their
apparent rudeness, these gems are shown, by the conditions in which they
are found, to be comparatively late works of the 4th century.
Furtwängler ingeniously suggests that the rough execution was intended
to emphasize the shining surfaces of the cup-sinkings, rather than to
produce any particular intaglio subject. (For an elaborate
classification of the Etruscan scarabs see Furtwängler, _Geschichte_, p.
170.)
_The Cameos._--After the beginning of the regal period, in the 4th
century B.C., the introduction of more splendid materials from the East
was turned to good account by the development of the cameo, i.e. of
gem-carving in relief (for the origin of the word see CAMEO). But in its
simpler forms the principle of the cameo necessarily dates from the
beginning of the art. Thus a lion in rock-crystal was found in the very
early royal tomb of Nagada (de Morgan, _Recherches, Tombeau de Negadah_,
p. 193). The Egyptian scarab, on its rounded side, had been
naturalistically carved in relief in beetle form. Steatite engravings in
relief (notably the harvest festival vase from Hagia Triada) were found
in the Cretan deposits. Subjects are found carved in the round in hard
stone in Mycenaean graves. When we come to historical Greece and to
Etruria the cameo of later times is anticipated by various attempts to
modify the traditional form of the scarab. An example in cornelian was
found at Orvieto in 1874 in a tomb along with vases dating from the
beginning of the 5th century B.C., and it will be seen from the
engraving of this gem (_Arch. Zeit._, 1877, pl. xi. fig. 3) that, while
the design on the face is in intaglio, the half-length figure of a
Gorgon on the back is engraved in relief. Compare a cornelian fragment,
apparently cut from the back of a scarabaeoid, now in the British
Museum. As further examples of the same rare form of cameo, the
following gems in the British Museum may be mentioned:--(1) a cornelian
cut from back of a scarabaeoid, with head of Gorgon surrounded by wings;
(2) cornelian scarabaeoid: Gorgon running to left; on face of the gem an
intaglio of Thetis giving armour to Achilles; (3) steatite scarabaeoid,
already mentioned, signed by Syries, head of a satyr, full face, with
intaglio of citharist. There is, however, no evidence at present
available to show that the cameo proper had been introduced in Greece
before the time of Alexander. The earliest examples found in known
conditions are derived from Crimean tombs of the middle of the 3rd
century B.C.
Among the most splendid of ancient cameos are those at St Petersburg and
Vienna, each representing a monarch of the Diadochi and his consort
(Furtwängler, pl. 53). There is much controversy as to the persons
represented, but the cameos are probably works of the 3rd century.
The materials which ancient artists used for cutting into cameos were
chiefly those siliceous minerals which, under a variety of names,
present various strata or bands of two or more distinct colours. The
minerals, under different names, are essentially the chalcedonic
variety of quartz, and the differences of colour they present are due to
the presence of variable proportions of iron and other foreign
ingredients. These banded stones, when cut parallel to the layers of
different colours, and when only two coloured bands--white and black, or
sometimes white and black and brown--are present, are known as onyxes;
but when they have with the onyx bands layers of cornelian or sard, they
are termed sardonyxes. The sardonyx, which was the favourite stone of
ancient cameo-engravers, and the material in which their masterpieces
were cut, was procured from India, and the increased intercourse with
the East after the death of Alexander the Great had a marked influence
on the development of the art.
Akin in their nature to the great regal cameos, which from the nature of
the case are cut on a nearly plane surface, are the cups and vases cut
out of a homogeneous stone and therefore capable of being worked in the
round. A few examples of such works survive. The most famous are the
Farnese Tazza and the cup of the Ptolemies. The Tazza, which is now in
the National Museum at Naples, was bought by Lorenzo de' Medici from
Pope Paul II. in 1471. It is a large shallow bowl of sardonyx, 8 in. in
diameter. On its exterior surface is a Gorgoneion upon an aegis; in the
interior is an allegorical design, relating to the Nile flood. The cup
of the Ptolemies, formerly known as the cup of St Denis, is preserved in
the Cabinet des Médailles of the French Bibliothèque Nationale. It is a
cup 4¾ in. high and 5-1/8 in. in diameter, carved out of oriental
sardonyx, and richly decorated with Dionysiac emblems and attributes in
relief.
[Illustration: FIG. 10.--Actaeon. Fragment of Sardonyx Cameo. (Brit.
Mus.)]
_The Cameo in the Roman Empire._--During the 1st century of the empire
the engraver's art alike in cameo and in intaglio was at a high degree
of excellence. The artist in cameo took full advantage of his rich
opportunities in the way of sumptuous materials, and of the requirements
of an imperial court. The two most famous examples of this art which
have come down to the present day are the Great Agate of the Sainte
Chapelle in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, and the Augustus Cameo in
the Vienna Collection. The former was pledged among other valuables in
1244 by Baldwin II. of Constantinople to Saint Louis. It is mentioned in
1344 as "Le Camahieu," having been sent in that year to Rome for the
inspection of Pope Clement VI. It is a sardonyx of five layers of
irregular shape, like all classical gems, measuring 12 in. by 10½ in. It
represents on its upper part the deified members of the Julian house.
The centre is occupied with the reception of Germanicus on his return
from his great German campaign by the emperor Tiberius and his mother
Livia. The lower division is filled with a group of captives in
attitudes expressive of woe and deep dejection. The Vienna gem (_Gemma
augustea_), an onyx of two layers measuring 8-5/8 in. by 7½, is a work
of still greater artistic interest. The upper portion is occupied with
an allegorical representation of the coronation of Augustus, the emperor
being represented as Jupiter with Livia as the goddess Roma at his side.
In the composition deities of Earth and Sea, and several members of the
family of Augustus, are introduced; on the exergue or lower portion are
Roman soldiers preparing a trophy, barbarian captives and female
figures. This gem was in the 15th century at the abbey of St Sernin at
Toulouse. According to tradition it had been placed there by
Charlemagne. It came into the possession of the emperor Rudolph II. in
the 16th century for the enormous sum of 12,000 gold ducats. The
principal cameo in the collection of the British Museum was acquired at
the final dispersion of the Marlborough Collection in 1899. It is a
sardonyx measuring 8¾ in. by 6 in., and appears to represent a Roman
emperor and empress in the forms of Serapis and Isis. Here also, in
imperial times as in the Hellenistic period, side by side with the great
cameos, we meet with works carved out in the round. Noted examples of
such work are the Brunswick vase (at Brunswick), with the subject of
Triptolemus; the Berlin vase with the lustration of a new-born imperial
prince; and the Waddesdon vase in the British Museum, with a vine in
relief set in a rich enamelled Renaissance mount. Hardly less precious
than the cameos in sardonyx were the imitations carved out of coloured
glass. The material was not costly, but its extreme fragility made the
work of extreme difficulty. Examples of such work are the Barberini or
Portland vase, deposited in the British Museum, with scenes supposed to
be connected with the story of Peleus and Thetis; and the "vase of blue
glass" from Pompeii, in the museum at Naples (see Mau and Kelsey, p.
408). The world's great cameos, which are hardly more than a dozen in
number, have not been found by excavation. They remained as precious
objects in imperial and ecclesiastical treasuries and passed thence to
the royal and national collections of modern Europe.
_The Intaglio in the Roman Empire._--The art of engraving in intaglio
was also at a high level of excellence in the beginning of the Roman
empire. This is to be inferred alike from the admirable portraits of the
1st century A.D., and from the number of signed gems bearing Roman
artists' names, such as Aulus, Gnaius and the like, which could hardly
belong to any other period. It is impossible, however, to found any
argument upon the artists' signatures without taking into account the
intricate questions of authenticity which are discussed in the following
section.
_Signed Gems._--The number of gems which have, or purport to have, the
name of the artist inscribed upon them is very large. A great many of
the supposed signatures are modern forgeries, dating from the period
between 1724 (when the book of Stosch, _Gemmae antiquae caelatae,
scalptorum nominibus insignitae_, first drew general attention to the
subject) and 1833, when the multitude of forged signatures (about 1800
in number) in the collection of Prince Poniatowski made the whole
pursuit ridiculous. It is known, however, that forged signatures were
current before 1724 (see Stosch, p. xxi.), and in the period immediately
following they were very numerous. Thus Laurence Natter (_Méthode de
graver en pierres fines_ (1754), p. xxx.) confesses that, whenever
desired, he made copies. For example, he copied a Venus (Brit. Mus. No.
2296), converting the figure into a Danaë and affixing the name of Aulos
which he found on the Venus. Cf. Mariette, _Traité_ (1750), i. p. 101.
The question which of the multitude of supposed signatures can be
accepted as genuine has been a subject of prolonged and intricate
controversy. In the period immediately following the Poniatowski
forgeries the extreme height of scepticism is represented by Koehler,
who only acknowledged five gems (Koehler, iii. p. 206) as having genuine
signatures. In recent years the subject has been principally dealt with
by Furtwängler, whose conclusion is to admit a considerable number of
gems rejected by his predecessors.
It must suffice here to point out a few general principles. In the first
place a certain number of gems recently discovered have inscriptions
which are undoubtedly genuine and which record the names of the
engravers. The form of the signature may be a nominative with a verb, a
nominative without a verb or a genitive. The artists in this class are
Syries, Dexamenus, Epimenes and Semon, mentioned above, and a few
others. Another group of gems which must be accepted consists of stones
whose known history goes back to a period at which a forged inscription
was impossible. Thus a bust of Athena in the Berlin Collection, signed
by Eutyches, was seen by Cyriac of Ancona in 1445. A glass cameo signed
by Herophilus, son of Dioscorides, now at Vienna, was, in the 17th
century, in the monastery of Echternach, where it had probably been from
old times. The portrait of Julia, daughter of Titus, by Euodos (now in
the Bibliothèque Nationale) was formerly a part of a reliquary presented
to the abbey of St Denis by Charles the Bold. Another group of
undoubtedly genuine signatures occurs on cameos (in stone and paste)
which have the inscriptions in relief, and therefore as part of the
original design. Such are the works of Athenion, and of Quintus, son of
Alexas.
For the great majority of signed gems which do not fall into these
categories the reader must refer to the discussions of Furtwängler and
others (see _Bibliography_ below). It must suffice to say that
Furtwängler arrives at the result that we have in all genuine signatures
of at least fifty ancient gem-engravers.
[Illustration: Fig. 11.--Christian Gem. The Good Shepherd. (Brit. Mus.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 12.--Gnostic Gem. (Brit. Mus.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 13.--Sassanian Gem. (Brit. Mus.)]
_Gem-Engraving in the Later Empire._--In the following centuries the art
of intaglio engraving, which was still at a high degree of perfection in
the first century of the Roman empire, became more mechanical. The
designs have a very characteristic appearance, due to the method of
production with rough and hasty strokes of the wheel only. A collection
of gems found in England, such as that in the possession of the
corporation of Bath, shows the feeble character in particular of the
gems current in the provinces. Except in portraiture, and in grylli or
conceits, in which various things are combined into one, often with much
skill, the subjects were as a rule only variations or adaptations of old
types handed down from the Greeks. When new and distinctly Roman
subjects occur, such as the finding of the head on the Capitol, or
Faustulus, or the she-wolf with the twins, both the stones and the
workmanship are poor. In such cases, where the design stirs a genuine
national interest, it may happen that very little of artistic rendering
will be acceptable rather than otherwise, and much more is this true
when the design is a symbol of some article of faith, as in the early
Christian gems. There both the art and the material are at what may be
called the lowest level. The usual subjects on the early Christian gems
are the fish, anchor, ship, dove, the good shepherd, and, according to
Clemens, the lyre. Under the Gnostics, however, with whom there was more
of speculation than of faith, symbolism was developed to an extent which
no art could realize without the aid of writing. A gem was to them a
talisman more or less elaborate with long, but for the most part quite
unintelligible, engraved formulae. The difficulty is to make out how the
stones were carried; many specimens exist, but none show signs of
mounting. The materials are usually haematite or jasper. As regards the
designs, it is clear that Egyptian sources have been most drawn upon.
But the symbolism is also largely associated with Mithraic worship. The
name Abraxas, or more correctly Abrasax, which, from its frequency on
these gems, has led to their being called also "Abraxas gems," is, when
the Greek letters of which it is composed are treated as Greek numerals,
equal to 365, the number of days in a year, and the same is the case
with [Greek: MEITHRAS].
More interesting, from the occasionally forcible portraiture and the
splendour of some of the jacinths employed, are the Sassanian gems,
which as a class may be said to represent the last stage of true
gem-engraving in ancient times.
The art of cameo-engraving, which, as we have seen, attained its
greatest splendour at the beginning of the empire, followed on the whole
a similar course. It waned in the early part of the 3rd century after
the death of the emperor Severus, but under the first Christian emperor
Constantine it enjoyed a brief period of revival. Fine cameo portraits
of Constantine are extant; and it was during or shortly after his reign
that Christian Scripture subjects began to appear on cameos. That class
of subjects constituted the staple of such work--generally rude and
artistically debased--as continued to be cultivated under the Byzantine
empire down to nearly the epoch of the Renaissance. From the Byzantine
period downward one peculiarity of gem-engraving becomes noticeable.
Cameo-work as compared with intaglios in classical times was rare and
infrequent, but now and onwards the opposite is the case,
intaglio-sinking having almost died out, and cameos being chiefly
produced. Commercial intercourse with the East still secured for the
engravers a supply of magnificent sardonyxes, although blood-stone and
other non-banded stones were very commonly used for works in relief.
Cameos during the long dark ages were used chiefly for the decoration of
reliquaries and other altar furniture, and as such their designs were
purely ecclesiastical or scriptural. To this period also belongs the
class of complimentary or motto cameos, which, containing only
inscriptions and an ornamental border, executed in nicolo stones, were
used as personal gifts and adornments.
In medieval times antique cameos were held in peculiar veneration on
account of the belief, then universal, in their potency as medicinal
charms. This power was supposed to be derived from their origin, of
which two theories, equally satisfactory, were current. By the one they
were held to be the work of the children of Israel during their sojourn
in the wilderness (hence the name _Pierres d'Israël_), while the other
theory held them to be direct products of nature, the engraved figures
pointing to the peculiar virtue lodged in them. Interpreters less
mystically inclined found Biblical interpretations for the subjects.
Thus the cameo of the Sainte Chapelle was supposed to represent the
triumph of Joseph in Egypt. A cameo with Poseidon, Athena and her
serpent was Adam and Eve.
The revival of the glyptic arts in western Europe dates from the
pontificate of the Venetian Paul II. (1464-1471), himself an ardent
lover and collector of gems, to which passion, indeed, it is gravely
affirmed he was a martyr, having died of a cold caught by the
multiplicity of gems exposed on his fingers. The cameos of the early
part of the 16th century rival in beauty of execution the finest
classical works, and, indeed, many of them pass in the cabinets of
collectors for genuine antiques, which they closely imitated. The
Oriental sardonyx was not available for the purposes of the Renaissance
artists, who were consequently obliged to content themselves with the
colder German agate onyx. The scarcity of worthy materials led them to
use the backs of ancient cameos, or to improve on classical works of
inferior value executed on good material, and probably to this cause
must also be assigned the development of shell cameos, which are rarely
found, of an older period.
Among the means of distinguishing antique cameos from cinquecento work,
the kind of stone is one of the best tests, the classical artists having
used only rich and warm-tinted Oriental stones, which further are
frequently drilled through their diameter with a minute hole, from
having been used by their original Oriental possessors in the form of
beads. The cinquecento artists also, as a rule, worked their subjects in
high relief, and resorted to undercutting, no case of which is found in
the flat low work of classical times. The projecting portions of antique
work exhibit a dull chalky appearance, which, however, fabricators
learned to imitate in various ways, one of which was by cramming the
gizzards of turkey fowls with the gems. Another index of antiquity is
found in the different methods of working adopted in classical and
Renaissance times. The tools employed by the Renaissance engraver were
the drill and the wheel, while the ancient artist also employed the
diamond point.
[Illustration: Fig. 14--Muse, by Pichler. (Brit. Mus.)]
The gem-engraver's art again during the 18th century revived under an
even greater amount of encouragement from men of wealth and rank. In
this last period the names of engravers who succeeded best in imitating
classical designs were Natter, Pichler (fig. 14), and the Englishmen
Marchant (fig. 15) and Burch. Compared with Greek gems, it will be seen
that what at first sight is attractive as refined and delicate is after
all an exaggerated minuteness of execution, entirely devoid of the
ancient spirit. The success with which modern engravers imposed on
collectors is recorded in many instances, of which one may be taken as
an instructive type. In the Bibliothèque Nationale is a gem
(Chabouillet's catalogue, No. 2337), familiarly known as the signet of
Michelangelo, the subject being a Bacchanalian scene. So much did he
admire it, the story says, that he copied from it one of the groups in
his paintings in the Sistine chapel. The gem, however, is evidently in
this part of it a mere copy from Michelangelo's group, and therefore a
subsequent production, probably by da Pescia.
[Illustration: Fig. 15.--Nereid and Sea-bull by Marchant. (Brit. Mus.)]
In our own day the engraving of cameos has practically ceased to be
pursued as an art. Roman manufacturers cut stones in large quantities to
be used as shirt-studs and for setting in finger-rings; and in Rome and
Paris an extensive trade is carried on in the cutting of shell cameos,
which are largely imported into England and mounted as brooches by
Birmingham jewelry manufacturers. The principal shell used is the large
bull's-mouth shell (_Cassis rufa_), found in East Indian seas, which has
a sard-like underlayer. The black helmet (_Cassis tuberosa_) of the West
Indian seas, the horned helmet (_C. cornuta_) of Madagascar, and the
pinky queen's conch (_Strombus gigas_) of the West Indies are also
employed. The famous potter Josiah Wedgwood introduced a method of
making imitations of cameos in pottery by producing white figures on a
coloured ground, this constituting the peculiarity of what is now known
as Wedgwood ware.
_Gem Collectors._--The habit of gem-collecting is recorded first in the
instance of Ismenias, a musician of Cyprus, who appears to have lived in
the 4th century B.C. But though individual collectors are not again
mentioned till the time of Mithradates, whose cabinet was carried off to
Rome by Pompey, still it is to be inferred that they existed, if not
pretty generally, yet in such places as Cyrene, where the passion for
gems was so great that the thriftiest person owned one worth 10 minas,
and where, according to Aelian (_Var. hist._ xii. 30), the skill in
engraving was astonishing. The first cabinet (_dactyliotheca_) in Rome
was that of Scaurus, a stepson of Sulla. Caesar is said to have formed
six cabinets for public exhibition, and from the time of Augustus all
men of refinement were supposed to be judges both of the art and of the
quality of the stones.
In the middle ages the chief collections were incorporated in works of
art in the church treasuries. The first collector of modern times was,
as already mentioned, Pope Paul II., who was followed by a long
succession of princely and noble collectors such as Lorenzo de' Medici
and the great earl of Arundel. The collection of the latter passed into
the hands of the dukes of Marlborough and thence into the possession of
Mr David Bromilow. The collection was finally dispersed by auction in
June 1899.
In modern times the principal collections are contained in state
museums. The cabinets of Vienna and of the Bibliothèque Nationale are
incomparably rich in the historic cameos. Those of the British Museum
and of Berlin are the strongest in their range over the whole field of
the gem-engraver's art.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--For the fullest general account of the subject (with
especial attention to the gems of classical antiquity) see A.
Furtwängler, _Die antiken Gemmen, Geschichte der Steinschneiderkunst
im klassischen Altertum_, in 3 vols (1900). See also E. Babelon, _La
Gravure en pierres fines, camées et intailles_ (1894); A.H. Smith,
"Gemma" and "Sculptura," in the 3rd edition of Smith's _Dict. of
Antiquities_; J.H. Middleton, _The Engraved Gems of Classical Times_
(1891). Much curious information is in the works of C.W. King:
_Handbook of Engraved Gems_ (1866); _Antique Gems_ (1866); _The
Natural History, Ancient and Modern, of Precious Stones and Gems, and
of the Precious Metals_ (1865); _Antique Gems and Rings_ (2 vols.,
1872).
Special Periods:--_Babylonia, &c._--Menant, "Les Pierres gravées de la
haute Asie," _Recherches sur la glyptique orientale_ (1883-1886).
_Egypt._--For the early cylinder sealings, &c. see Petrie, "Royal
Tombs of the First Dynasty" (_Egypt Explor. Fund, XVIIIth Memoir_), p.
24; pls. 12, figs. 3 to 7, and pls. 18-29; Amélineau, "Nouvelles
Fouilles d'Abydos, 1897-1898," _Compte rendu_, pp. 78, 423; pl. 25,
figs. 1-3.
_The Bible._--Petrie, "Stones (Precious)," in Hastings' _Dict. of the
Bible_.
_Phoenician._--See M.A. Levy, _Siegel und Gemmen_, with three plates
of gems having Phoenician, Aramaic, old Hebrew and other inscriptions
(Breslau, 1869); and, on the same subject, De Voguë, in the _Revue
archéologique_, 2nd series (1868), xvii. p. 432, pls. 14-16.
_Crete._--Articles by A.J. Evans in _Journal of Hellenic Studies_,
xiv., xvii., xxi., and in _Annual of British School at Athens_, vi.
and onwards.
_Classical Gems._--See Furtwängler, op. cit.
_Gnostic Gems._--Cabrol, _Dict. d'archéologie chrétienne_, s.v.
"Abrasax."
For the controversy as to gems with artists' signatures, see Koehler,
_Abhandlung über die geschnittenen Steine, mit den Namen der
Künstler_; Koehler's collected works, ed. Stephani, vol. iii. (1851);
Stephani, Notes to Koehler as above; also _Über einige angebliche
Steinschneider des Alterthums_ (St Petersburg, 1851); Brunn,
_Geschichte der griechischen Künstler_, ii. (1859), pp. 442-637;
Furtwängler, _Jahrbuch d. k. deutsch. arch. Inst._ iii. (1888), pp.
105, 193, 297; iv. (1889), p. 46, and _Geschichte_, passim.
For the history of the Poniatowski gems, see Reinach, _Pierres
gravées_, p. 151.
_Catalogues._--The chief catalogues dealing with modern public
collections are: Berlin, A. Furtwängler, _Beschreibung der
geschnittenen Steine im Antiquarium_ (1896); British Museum, A.H.
Smith, _A Catalogue of Engraved Gems in the British Museum_ (_Dept. of
Greek and Roman Antiquities_) (1888); Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale,
Chabouillet, _Catalogue ... des camées et pierres gravées de la
Bibliothèque Impériale_ (1858); E. Babelon, _Catalogue des camées ...
de la Bibliothèque Nationale_ (1897).
_Modern Engraving._--Vasari vii. p. 113 (ed. Siena, 1792); continued
by Mariette, _Traité des pierres gravées_ (1750), i. p. 105. The older
books on gems are very numerous, but those of present-day importance
are not many. Faber, _Illustrium imagines ... apud Fulvium Ursinum_
(Antwerp, 1606); Stosch, _Gemmae antiquae caelatae, scalptorum
nominibus insignitae_ (Amsterdam, 1724); Winckelmann, _Description des
pierres gravées du feu Baron de Stosch_ (1760); Krause, _Pyrgoteles,
oder die edlen Steine der Alten_ (1856); a convenient reissue of
Stosch, and seven others of the older works, by S. Reinach, _Pierres
gravées, &c. ... réunies et rééditées, avec un texte nouveau_ (1895).
_Pastes._--The principal collection of glass and sulphur pastes from
gems was that issued by James Tassie of Glasgow, with _A Descriptive
Catalogue of a General Collection of ... Engraved Gems ... arranged
and described by R.E. Raspe_ (the author of _Baron Munchausen_)
(1791). (A. S. M.; A. H. Sm.)