GEM-SCULPTURE. 



381 



account of the form of the stones (cut into the shape 

 of beetles). Yet the specimens of the early period 

 of the art are so rare, that we have not sufficient 

 data, for fixing on any class as prior to tliat just 

 mentioned. The flourishing 1 period of the glyptic 

 art, seems to have been the age of Alexander the 

 Great ; but we are able to judge of the works of 

 Pyrgoteles, Apollonides, and Cronius, only from tra- 

 dition, as there are no works of these masters extant. 

 Pyrgoteles was distinguished for works in relief; 

 and from his time the art may have risen, gradually, 

 to that degree of perfection of which we possess such 

 rich specimens. The artists, some of whose names 

 we learn from their works themselves (of whom Gr. 

 Clarac has given a list in his Description des Antiques 

 du Musee Royal de France, Paris, 1820), took the 

 masterpieces of sculpture for their subjects and 

 models. Under the Roman emperors, in particular, 

 this was very common. The names of Dioscorides, 

 Apollonides, Aulos, Hyllos, Cneius, Solon, remind 

 us of the most perfect works in this branch of art. 

 But the works of greatest value which have come 

 down to us the onyx, in the chapel at Paris, the 

 apotheosis of Augustus in Vienna, the onyx, at the 

 Hague, representing the apotheosis of the emperor 

 Claudius, Achilles lamenting Patroclus, the head of 

 Julius Caesar (Agincourt's Sculpt, pi. 48), these, 

 and the Brunswick vase, and the Trivulcian and 

 Neapolitan cups, bear no distinguished names. 



Names of Greek composition were frequently put 

 on engraved stones in the fifteenth century, when the 

 patronage of the Medici revived the taste for gems 

 and dactyliothecas (q. v.), which had so powerfully 

 promoted this branch of art under the later Roman 

 emperors. Pompey consecrated the dactyliotheca 

 of Mithridates, as a votive offering, in the capitol ; 

 Julius Ca3sar, six tablets, with six gems, in the temple 

 of Venus. At a later period, the collections of 

 Herodes Atticus, of Vespasian, &c., were celebrated; 

 yet this general taste was not able to preserve the 

 art from decline. We find proofs of this degeneracy 

 in the times of the later emperors, in the numerous 

 class of gems called abraxas (q. v.) and abraxides, 

 in some rare works of the Byzantine period (Dufresne 

 in Leo Diaconus ; ed. Hase, Paris, 1819, folio, and 

 Ilaspe's Catalogue of Tassie's Collection,) and in some 

 artificial gems of the first centuries. 



As no use could be made of the material of these 

 works, gems continued to be highly prized, even in 

 the times of the greatest barbarism, and served to 

 ornament the shrines of saints, royal badges, and 

 ceremonial dresses, and thus passed safely through 

 the ages of destruction and ignorance, in which the 

 finest statues were valued as materials for mortar or 

 for building, down to ages which could appreciate 

 their value. If we may judge from the remains 

 which have come down to us, engraved gems seem 

 to have been more common in Byzantium and Con- 

 stantinople than in the West. 



In Plate XXXIX, we have given seven represen- 

 tations of ancient engraved gems. 



Fig. 1st represents Bacchus, (done on sardonyx). 

 M. de Boze, in the manuscript catalogue of gems in 

 the collection of the duke of Orleans, has taken this 

 figure for Cleopatra. In truth, its form partakes 

 much of the female, but such is the character that 

 the ancient artists gave to their representations of 

 Bacchus. " The Greeks," says the abbe Winkel- 

 niann, " liked to represent their divinities as youthful, 

 which, besides avoiding the harsh forms that charac- 

 terize advanced age, gives more unity to the design, 

 as it appears reasonable, in giving a body to divinities, 

 that that body ought to be the most elegant, the most 

 fresh, the most agreeable, and the least material pos- 

 sible." The god appears upon this stone in an atti- 



tude which is common on antique monuments, the 

 arm being placed upon the head, which posture was 

 conventional among the ancients as expressive of 

 softness and repose. 



Fig. 2. Mercury (on a cornelian) appears here 

 with the attributes of the god of commerce. He is 

 seated on a sort of rock, a light mantle meets below 

 his neck, and folded round his right arm falls down 

 upon the hand, which holds the caduceus; and, in 

 his left hand, he holds the purse. Before the god is 

 a cock, and at his feet is a goat. The reverse of the 

 medal of Tiberius struck at Carthage, and another 

 of Lucius Verus struck at Corinth, present Mercury 

 in the same manner, seated on a rock or mount of 

 stone. If it is a rock, it might have reference to 

 navigation, of which he is the protector, and hence 

 named E<ra*T/of, and had temples erected to him on 

 promontories. 



Fig. 3. Cupid upon the waves, a cameo agate- 

 onyx. 



Fig. 4. Terpsichore, (on oriental sardonyx). The 

 figure represented here has been repeated by various 

 artists, and upon different materials. Onesas, Allion, 

 Cronius, have executed it with nearly equal success, 

 probably after some antique statue or celebrated bas- 

 relief; for the ancients, as is commonly remarked, 

 copied, reproduced, and multiplied the chefs d'oeuvres 

 of sculpture. Nearly all the antiquarians have taken 

 this figure for that of one of the muses. The baron 

 de Stosch conceives it to be Erato, and the abbe Win- 

 kelmann believes it to be Terpsichore. The opinion 

 of the last appears to us to be the best founded. 

 The attitude of the small image placed upon the 

 cippus on which the figure leans, appears to express 

 that the muse presides at the dance ; and, in the 

 second volume of the Herculanean pictures, where 

 each of the muses is represented with its attribute, 

 Terpsichore has the lyre. 



Fig. 5. Dodonian Jupiter. This sardonyx is one 

 of great importance, and is engraved in a fine style. 

 It was formerly in the cabinet of the Elector Palatine, 

 and is at present in that of the duke of Orleans. It 

 has been published, under the name of the Indian 

 Bacchus, by M. Cheron in his collection. It was 

 also given by Montfaucon, in the supplement of his 

 antiquity, where he entitled it Jupiter Saviour. But 

 it is easily perceived that none of these names apply 

 properly to it. The only character recognisable is 

 that of Jupiter, and the wreath of oak with which he 

 is crowned, and which is the attribute of the Dodo- 

 nian Jupiter, should allow no doubt to remain of that 

 being the character it is intended to express. One 

 of the finest heads known of this god is that seen on 

 the gold medals of Alexander king of Epirus, that 

 M. Duane has caused to be engraved by Bartalozzi. 

 The heads and statues of the Dodonian Jupiter are 

 exceedingly rare, a thing the more astonishing, as 

 that oracle was the most famous of antiquity. 



Fig. 6th represents Jupiter overcoming the Titans. 

 This fine cameo is in the museum of the king of 

 Naples, and bears the name of Athenian. It belongs 

 probably to the time of Alexander the Great. It 

 exhibits an example, perhaps unique, of a fore- 

 shortened group, the ground plan of the figures being 

 a curve. 



Fig. 7th represents a Dancing Nymph. This is a 

 beautiful little intaglio. The simplicity and elegance 

 of the figure are truly exquisite. The nymph, perhaps 

 Euterpe, is playing on two flutes, while turning on the 

 toe with a graceful ease that puts to shame the pirou- 

 ettes of modern dancing. Her drapery floats on the 

 air, expressing the circular movement of the figure 

 and agreeably fills the space that would otherwise ap- 

 pear empty. The original gem formerly existed in the 

 Stosch collection. Its age and author are unknown 



