CYPRUS. 29 
exhibiting a model of the impression or cast chap. 
yielded to a signet. The use of the cameo was ' »■ * 
not perhaps introduced before the period of 
the Roman power. Such relics are rarely 
found in Greece; and even when discovered, 
with the exception of the remarkable stone J'^^fj"* 
found at Thebes, representing a female Centaur 
suckling its foal\ the workmanship is bad. 
Concerning the Thehan Gem, it may perhaps be 
proved that the subject thereon exhibited was 
originally derived from a very popular picture 
painted by Zeuxis; and as its execution is by 
no means uniformly excellent, there is reason 
to conclude that the work is not of remote 
antiquity. Every traveller who has visited ^"'''"'i^' 
^ ^ -' commemo- 
Ital?/ may have remarked a practice of repre- rated upon 
senting, both by cameos and intaglios, the subjects 
of celebrated pictures; such, for example, as 
those of the Dande and the T'^enus by Titian, 
and many other. Copies of this kind were also 
known among the Romans^, and perhaps at an 
(5; This celebrated Cameo has been long known to all travellers who 
have visited Greece. It belonged to a peasant, who esteemed it beyond 
all price, from its imaginary virtue in healing diseases. Many persons 
in vain endeavoured to purchase it. The £■«<•/ o/.t7o<«, ambassador 
at the Porte, at last found the means of inducing its owner to part 
with it. 
(6) The famous mosaic picture of the Vase and Pigeons, found in 
the Villa of Meccenas, and lately in the Capitol at Rome, exhibits a 
subject frequently introduced upon the antieut gems olltaly. 
