118 
FOREIGN ARCHAEOLOGICAL NOTES. 
[Nature and Art, September 1, 186G. 
The Medici aided the intellectual movement. En- 
thusiasm for letters and the arts seized upon the 
courts of Milan, Mantua, Urbino It 
was the epoch of the most brilliant literary and 
artistic development in Italy, the moment of her 
regeneration. 
“ That which is especially to be remarked is that, 
at that time, there was great interest shown in the 
visible qualities of things ; men began to see what 
was around them. Forms, colours, lines, attracted 
admiration ; and the taste for what attracts the eye 
is always intense. It was in the midst of this 
enthusiasm for nature that arose that grand Italian 
art which is known as the Renaissance.” 
The views of the lecturer are in some respects 
novel, and his words are not likely to be less 
effective because open to discussion ; they contain 
for the present day a lesson and a warning. 
Is there a renaissance going on now, or do we 
want some new and great events to rouse the 
human mind to grand design 1 Will Italy once 
more light the sacred fire 1 
FOREIGN ARCHAEOLOGICAL NOTES. 
T HE study of archseology and the collection of 
objects of antiquity are certainly growing- 
more and more into favour. 
The collection of medals, cameos, small bronzes, 
and other objects of art belonging to the Biblio- 
theque Imperiale is well known to all connoisseurs ; 
but this collection is now thrown open to the public 
in a separate gallery in the new buildings of the 
establishment, and the objects themselves are seen 
to far greater advantage in the new museum than 
they were in the sombre rooms of the old palace 
of Richelieu. 
In the largest compartment of the new gallery, 
a noble room, is a central case which is the object 
of the greatest attraction. This case is divided 
into seven compartments, each of which holds one 
celebrated object of virtu. First there is the 
famous cameo of the Sainte Chapelle, as it is called, 
a sardonyx eleven or twelve inches in diameter in 
each direction, and having five distinct strata, on 
which is engraved the Apotheosis of Augustus. 
The design is divided into three scenes : in the 
first the Emperor is carried to the foot of Jupiter’s 
throne by Pegasus, and received there by his, 
asserted, ancestor LEneas ; in the central compart- 
ment the family of the Cresars is collected around 
the Emperor Tiberius, seated on a throne, while 
Drusus points out the triumph of the great 
Augustus ; in the lower division of the work, 
German and Oriental captives, men, women, and 
children, the trophies of Germanicus and the 
younger Drusus, prostrate themselves at the feet of 
the family of Tiberius. The history of this cameo 
is curious ; it is said to have been executed at 
Rome in the time of Tiberius, and to have re- 
mained in that capital until Constantine took with 
him a part of the imperial treasure when he raised 
the new empire on the banks of the Bosphorus. The 
cameo was amongst these treasures, and was even- 
tually purchased by Louis IX., of the Emperor 
Baudouin. When brought to France, the savants 
pronounced the subject to be that of the flight 
of Joseph into Egypt, to which, unless you 
discard all costume and emblems, it has no manner 
of resemblance ; however, as such it was placed 
in the exquisite little Sainte Chapelle, built by 
Saint Louis to receive the relics brought by him 
from the Holy Land, and there it remained for 
years, the emblem of pagan triumph surrounded 
by the relics of Christianity in a Christian chapel. 
Such was the celebrity attached by the Christian 
world to the grand cama'ieu, as it was then called, 
that the Pope desired to see it, and it was sent to 
Rome in the time of Philippe VI., and not replaced 
in the Sainte Chapelle until Charles V. came to 
the throne. No suspicion, or no hint, of the real 
subject of the design seems to have been raised or 
given in Rome, and the cameo remained amongst 
the relics until archaeologists began to discriminate 
between Romans and Easterns, or until church- 
men would give ear to archaeologists. It was only 
in 1791 that it was transferred to the gallery of 
antiquities in the Bibliotheque Royale. A few 
years afterwards it was stolen and offered for sale 
to a jeweller in Holland; but he recognized it in- 
stantly, and caused the thief to be arrested and the 
cameo to be restored. 
On one side of the great cameo is a noble sar- - 
donyx cup mounted in gold and decorated with 
precious stones ; this belonged formerly to the 
church of Saint Denis, and was called the Gondola 
from its elongated form. 
In the division on the other side of the central 
object is a massive gold plateau, with a Latin cross 
in the centre, composed of pieces of red glass and 
a gold ewer. These curious objects were found, 
with a quantity of Roman money, near the church 
of Gourdon, in the Cote d’Qr, in a hole covered by 
a large brick, or rather tile, where they are sup- 
posed to have been hidden in the time of the 
Merovingians. It should be mentioned that the 
discovery was not purely accidental; there was a 
tradition afloat in the neighbourhood that a treasure 
was buried near the spot, and many previous 
attempts to discover it had been made without 
success. 
Another of the objects in this central case is the 
so-called Patera of Rennes, a massive golden tazza 
or coupe, beaten out with the hammer, and bearing 
as decorations a bas-relief representing the conflict 
of Bacchus and Hercules, and sixteen gold medals 
of the Roman emperors. It was found, -with some 
