716 CAMEOS. 



and a great patron of the arts. He is said to have l)een the original 

 of ^neas as depicted by Virgih 



During the Roman Empire until the time of Constantine great 

 luxury prevailed, and no doubt the lavish expenditure which was 

 indulged in by the opulent and luxurious collectors of their time 

 tempted the most skilled of the Greek cameo cutters to migrate to 

 Rome and follow their avocations there more profitably to themselves 

 than they could anywhere else. 



Toward the end of the third century the Greek influence began to 

 die out of Roman art in cut gems, and consequently there is a marked 

 decline in the hitherto high standard reached in their production, and 

 in the fourth century, when Constantine the Great moved his court 

 to Byzantium, '' Nova Roma "" as it was sometimes called, a new style, 

 Christian in feeling, began, and the classical designs hitherto preva- 

 lent were changed as to their attributes or superseded by others of 

 new character. Hercules becomes David, Perseus and the Gorgon 

 do duty for David and Goliath, Venus and Leda both become the 

 Virgin Mary, and the heads of Medusa have the snakes cut away and 

 are changed into the Holy face of St. Veronica. Byzantine art in 

 cameos is not remarkably good; it is chiefly noticeable for the skillful 

 manner in which advantage is taken of the natural markings of the 

 bloodstone. 



Some ancient portrait and subject cameos are of world-wide celeb- 

 rity, either because of the exquisite beauty of the art displayed upon 

 them, or for the size arid beauty of the stones in which they are cut. 

 The largest of these are both illustrative of scenes in the life of the 

 Emperor Tiberius, who succeeded Augustus; one is at Paris (13 by 

 11 inches) and the other at Vienna (9 by 7i inches). M. P^rnest 

 Balu'lon thinks these may both have been cut by the celebrated en- 

 graver of intaglios, Dioscorides. Then there is the beautiful double 

 profile cameo at St. Petersburg, known as the " Gonzaga Cameo," 

 representing, perhaps, Ptolemy II, Philadelphus, King of Egypt, and 

 his wife, and another of the same king with his second wife, at 

 Vienna. Adolf Furtwaengler considers these may be portraits of 

 Alexander the Great and his mother 01ynij)ias. They were both 

 most likely made during the early Ptolemaic period. 



The large double portrait cameo, formerly in the Marlb()r.)ugli 

 collection and now in the British Museum, is also one of the great 

 cameos of the world ; it measures S'^ by G inches, and represents an 

 emperor and empress facing each other, in profile, with the attributes 

 of Jupiter Amnion and Isis. 



The most beautiful single head in a cameo is probably the portrait 

 of the Emperor Augustus, now in the British Museum, and formerly 

 in the Strozzi collection at Florence (pi. i). It measures 5 by 3{t 

 inches, and is cut upon a most beautiful sardonyx. Another mag- 



