Cameo of Augustus in the Blacas Collection. 407 



It is now preserved in the Bibliothique Imperiale. In the 

 same case with the large cameo of Augustus in the Blacas 

 collection there is a small one, of the same emperor, also on 

 sardonyx, which came likewise from the Strozzi cabinet. 



The choicest examples of the Blacas collection are arranged 

 in two cases, at the two ends of a box or frame, one with the 

 large cameo of Augustus in the centre, looking towards the 

 entrance-door, the other in the opposite direction. The first 

 contains forty intaglios and cameos, and among the latter, 

 besides the two already described, a cameo on sardonyx, 

 representing a portrait of Tiberius, also from the Strozzi 

 collection, which strikes us by its wonderful relief, but it has 

 suffered much from rubbing. Among the intaglios in this 

 case are a portrait of Julius Cassar engraved in jacynth, the 

 features of which are wonderfully sharp and delicate ; a 

 Silenus, on cornelian, with full face, remarkably fine ; another 

 Silenus, side face, on amethyst, which is also finely executed, 

 and has the name of the engraver inscribed in Greek letters, 

 Hyllus ; and a Masnad, whose wild and drunken fury, and the 

 voluptuous fleshiness of her bosom, are represented with 

 extraordinary effect. The other select case contains forty-two 

 examples. It also has its large cameo, well executed, on a 

 sardonyx about five inches high, representing the Empress 

 Messalina. The portrait of Juba II. is represented in a 

 delicate little cameo on sardonyx. A head of Livia, on 

 cornelian, is also worthy of our notice, because the head is in 

 intaglio, surrounded by a border in cameo. This also came 

 from the Strozzi collection. Among the intaglios in this 

 case, we may call attention to a female head in cornelian, with 

 a sweet little face ; a very characteristic portrait of Vespasian, 

 in cornelian ; and a small head of Horace, in topaz, of con- 

 siderable merit. There is also in this case what is called an 

 amulet, in cornelian, formed in the shape of the petal of a 

 flower (perhaps intended for a rose), with two small Cupids, 

 very prettily executed in intaglio. 



The rest of the intaglios of the Blacas collection, with two 

 or three cameos, are placed in three large cases, upon tables, 

 on the other side of the room, and are mostly of inferior work. 

 Many of them have suffered from rubbing and ill-usage. They 

 'amount in all to 384. We may, in passing over them, point 

 out to notice No. 20, a neat little cameo of a horse, of tolerably 

 good work, and No. 245, a sardonyx remarkable for its neat 

 border of astragals. 



In the course of collecting, the Due de Blacas embraced a 

 taste for acquiring a class of monuments which were then com- 

 paratively little thought of, those of the earlier ages of Mahome- 

 tanism, which are intimately connected with the present article 



