MINERALS IN ART AND ARCHEOLOGY — GETTENS 561 



neous items in which a variety of semiprecious stones, including agate, 

 jade, aventurine, chalcedony, jasper, rhodonite, and others were 

 carved into thin and cunningly wrought shapes and then combined 

 in patterns and colors to make precious objects to be used by their 

 imperial patrons as gifts, room decorations, and religious symbols. 

 Among the superb items in the collection is an orange blossom with 

 emerald center and buds of chalcedony; the leaves are made of 

 Siberian nephrite, and the gold stem is set in a rock-crystal vase cut 

 to appear half filled with water. 



"Easter Eggs" were the central theme of an exhibit of master 

 works of Carl Faberge shown in the spring of 1961 at the Corcoran 

 Gallery of Art in Washington [24]. These eggs, made of enamel and 

 semiprecious stones and mounted in gold, were used as Easter gifts 

 by members of the Russian Imperial Court. Some of the eggs opened 

 up to give the favored one a surprise such as a vase of spring flowers 

 or a golden hen. One striking object in the collection is a polar bear 

 of frosted rock crystal, standing on a floating cake of clear rock- 

 crystal ice. One feels after seeing these collections of bibelots that 

 Faberge and his school could really "make magic" with minerals. 



Frequent mention has been made of cylinder seals used by the 

 Sumerians as well as the later Babylonians and Assyrians. These 

 are small cylinders generally from about 1 to 2 inches in length with 

 a lengthwise center hole. Around the cylindrical surface was cut a 

 device or inscription in intaglio, which was in effect the signature of 

 the owner who rolled it with the aid of a spindle and handle onto a 

 damp clay tablet. Some show ritual scenes, others hunting scenes, 

 heroic actions, and scenes from farming and agriculture. The seals 

 were made from almost any hard material such as stone, shell, faience, 

 glass, or ivory. Many Smnerian seals discovered by Sir Leonard 

 Woolley at Ur were made from lapis lazuli. Many hundreds, prob- 

 ably thousands, of these seals are in existence. There is a notable 

 collection of them in the Morgan Library in New York [25] and a 

 somewhat smaller one in the Smithsonian Institution. The interesting 

 thing is that a collection of cylinder seals presents about as wide a 

 variety of minerals as any art form, and many of them are true works 

 of art. 



MINERALS IN PAINTING 



Since prehistoric times, minerals ground to a fine powder have been 

 used as paint pigments. Only a handful of mineral substances, how- 

 ever, have the necessary properties, namely : high color intensity when 

 ground to a fine powder ; refractive index sufficiently high to provide 

 hiding power and opacity ; and permanence to light and atmosphere. 



The iron- and manganese-bearing earth pigments which contain 



