332 



GEM-SCULPTURE GENEALOGY. 



The earliest gem-engraver, of modern times, is 

 Vittore Pisanello, who lived at Florence about the 

 year 1406. Among the Germans, Daniel Engelhard, 

 of Nuremberg, was the earliest. He died in 1512. 

 The discovery of some fine specimens in Italy, 

 particularly at Florence, and the display of gems by 

 the emperor Pala;ologus, at the council of Florence, 

 in 1438, were perhaps the original cause of the taste 

 of the Medici for engraved stones. The popes and 

 that family were the first patrons of this art in 

 modern times. A Florentine artist, by the name of 

 John, generally called, on account of his great skill, 

 Giovanni delle Corniole, distinguished himself in this 

 early period of the modern art. There are but few 

 gems which can be ascribed to him, with any confl- 

 uence, beside the famous cornelian in the Florentine 

 museum, with the portrait of Savonarola, bearing 

 the inscription Hieront/mus Ferrariensis ordinis 

 preedicatorum, propheta, vir et martyr. This stone, 

 which must have been engraved later than 1498, is 

 given in Agincourt's Sculpture (tab. 48, number 82). 

 Contemporaries and rivals of Giovanni were Nanni 

 di Prospero dalle Carniole, in Florence, whom Fran- 

 cesco Salviati directed in his works, and Domenico 

 Compagnie (del camei), a Milanese, whose portrait 

 of Ludovico Sforza, called Moro, cut in a ruby, is 

 still preserved in the Florentine museum. After 

 Bernardi (delle Corniole), Valerio Vicentino (under 

 Leo X.) rendered himself famous as a gem-engraver. 

 This art found patrons in all the Italian princes ; the 

 number of artists constantly increased, and the sphere 

 of their art was extended. The names of the artists, 

 however, are not generally known, because they 

 were rarely put upon the stones. Many gems, too, 

 are still concealed in the cabinets of the wealthy, or 

 the treasuries of princes. Until these are as accu- 

 rately described as those of the Ambrosian collection, 

 it will be difficult to obtain a complete general 

 view. 



Subjects of antiquity were treated by these artists 

 in preference, and with such ability that it often 

 requires the skill of the most accomplished connois- 

 seur to distinguish them from genuine antiques. 

 The dispute concerning the famous seal ring of 

 Michael Angelo is well known. It is not improbable 

 that this cornelian is the work of Pietro Maria da 

 Pescia, as the figure of the fisherman in the exergue 

 may indicate that artist, who, with Michelino, be- 

 longed to the age of Leo X. (Fiorillo, Essays, vol. ii, 

 page 188.) In order to give the gems more com- 

 pletely the appearance of antiques, some artists 

 engraved their Barnes in Greek, but with so little 

 knowledge of the language, that they sometimes 

 betrayed themselves by this artifice. To this time 

 we must ascribe the gems, with the name Pyrgoteles, 

 which Fiorillo endeavours to prove were the works 

 of an Italian of Greek descent (Lascaris.) 



The art of engraving was also applied to glass and 

 gold. The crystal box of Valerio Belli, the most 

 skilful and industrious artist in this branch during 

 the sixteenth century, deserves particular mention. 

 It was intended by Clement VII. as a present to 

 Francis I., when Catharine of Medici went to Mar- 

 seilles in 1533. At present, it is in Florence. 

 Drawings of it are to be found in Agincourt's 

 Sculpture (table 43) and in Cicognara (ii. table 87.) 



The Milanese particularly distinguished them- 

 selves in gem-sculpture, as the wealth of the principal 

 citizens of Milan enabled them to patronise this art. 

 Jacopo da Trezza, the same artist who, in 1564, 

 executed, for Philip II., the famous tabernacle of 

 the Escurial, made the first attempts at engraving on 

 the diamond, in Milan. The greatest cameo work of 

 modern times is the stone in the Florentine museum, 

 seven inches in breadth, upon which Cosmo, grand 



duke of Tuscany, with his wife, Eleonore, and seven 

 children, are represented. A Milanese, John Anthony 

 de Rossi, who was a contemporary of the Saracchi 

 family (about 1570), is the artist. The Saracchi 

 were five brothers, and the crystal helmet of Albert 

 of Bavaria is a proof of their skill. See Cicognara 's 

 Storia delict Scultura, edizione di Prafo, v. p. 446 



The first traces of gem-engraving in Germany are 

 found in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, in 

 Nuremberg and Strasburg. Natter, himself a dis- 

 tinguished artist in this branch, has given an accom.t 

 of his predecessors in his Traite de la Methods An- 

 tique de graver en Pierre Fine, comparee avec la 

 Methods Moderne (London, 1755). Natter himself, 

 Pichler and Marchant are considered as the restorers 

 of this art in that country. Facius and Hecker are 

 also esteemed. It is still practised with great suc- 

 cess by several artists, and by Polish Jews witli 

 particular skill, but only for coats of arms. In this 

 country, James Tassie (q. v.) who died in 1799, has 

 most distinguished himself as a gem-engraver. The 

 most eminent artist of the present age is, perhaps, 

 Berini, a native of Rome, who with Cervara and 

 Giromelli, at Rome, and Putinati at Milan, lias 

 produced very fine works. Jakob Frischholz's Lehr- 

 buch der Steinschneidekunst (Manual of Gem- Engrav- 

 ing, Munich, 1820) is considered a good work, as 

 also is P. Partsch's T'erzeichniss einer Sammlung 

 von Demanten und der zur Bearbeitung derselben 

 nothwendigen Apparate (Vienna, 1822, 4to). 



GENDARMES. See Gens cTArmes. 



GENEALOGY. The systematical account of the 

 origin, descent, and relations of families is an 

 auxiliary of historical science. Genealogical know- 

 ledge becomes important in a personal or legal view, 

 when family claims are to be established. Genealogy 

 is founded on the idea of a lineage or family. Per- 

 sons; descended from a common father constitute a 

 family. Under the idea of degree is denoted the 

 nearness or remoteness of relationship in which one 

 person stands with respect to another. A series of 

 several persons, descended from a common progenitor, 

 is called a line. A line is either direct or collateral. 

 The direct line is divided into the ascending and 

 descending. As far as the seventh degree, parti- 

 cular names are given to the progenitors by the 

 civil law (pater, avus, proavus, abavus, atavus, 

 tritavus, protritavus), and to the descendants (ftlius, 

 nepos, pronepos, abnepos, atnepos, trinepos, protri- 

 nepos). The other ascendants are called, in general, 

 majores (ancestors), and the other descendants, poste- 

 ri (or posterity). The collateral lines comprehend 

 the several lines which unite in a common progenitor. 

 They are either equal or unequal, according as the 

 number of the degrees in the lines is the same or 

 different. The collateral relations on the father's 

 side are termed agnati, on the mother's, cognati. 

 Children stand to each other in the relation either 

 of the full blood or the half blood, according as they 

 are descended from the same parents, or have only 

 one parent in common. 



For illustrating descent and relationship, genealo- 

 gical tables are constructed, the order of which de- 

 pends on the end in view. In tables, the object of 

 which is to show all the individuals embraced in a 

 family, it is usual to begin witli the oldest progenitor, 

 and to put all the persons of the male or female sex 

 in descending, and then in collateral lines. Other 

 tables exhibit the ancestors of a particular person in 

 ascending lines, both on the father's and mother's 

 side. In this way, 4, 8, 16, &c., ancestors are 

 exhibited. (See Ancestors.) The tables showing 

 the succession of rulers contain merely the descent 

 of the persons who have reigned in succession, or 

 who have claims to the government. In connexion 



