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Collecting Engraved Gems 
(Continued ft 
an impression in relief on the wax. 
However, cameo gems (gems engraved 
in relief instead of intaglio) also date 
from a very early period. The Egyp¬ 
tian scarabs were a combination of 
both forms—the top part representing 
a beetle being cut cameo and the in¬ 
scription on the under face being cut 
intaglio. Cyril Davenport (“Cameos”), 
says: “In the first Century B. C. the 
onyx cameo began to take a high posi¬ 
tion as a much esteemed article of 
adornment or possession, and its ap¬ 
preciation quickly increased with the 
more and more beautiful workmanship 
brought into the art of the Greek gem 
cutters. Following, to some extent the 
fashion of the small seal ring intaglios, 
the smaller cameos were sometimes 
used in the same way, but never to any 
great extent. The larger cameos were 
no doubt used as fastenings for cloaks 
or shoulder brooches; but they were al¬ 
ways very interesting as wonderful 
works of art only, and also because 
they often bear portraits of great per¬ 
sonages. No existing form of portrai¬ 
ture is so strong and, at the same time, 
so delicate and beautiful as that to be 
found on a first-rate antique onyx 
cameo. Such portraits were by mas¬ 
ters in their art, and are compar¬ 
able with the finest art of any age, or 
executed in any medium.” 
Gems' Long Life 
As Davenport remarks, it is true that 
few things made by mankind will re¬ 
tain their original surface, color, and 
beauty longer than a cut or engraved 
gem. The engraved gems by the glyp¬ 
tic masters of ancient times that have 
come down to us give abundant proof 
of this, likewise do the engraved gems 
of the masters of the Italian Renais¬ 
sance. 
It has been suggested that engraved 
gems became popular with the Romans 
in the First Century B. C. when Pom- 
pey displayed the treasure of Mithri- 
dates in the three days triumph at 
Rome. However this may be, it is re¬ 
corded that Julius Caesar presented a 
collection of engraved gems to the 
Temple of Venus Genetrix. Probably 
the Romans had long used engraved 
gem signets and the Mithridates treasure 
may merely have set the fashion for 
more ornamental application of glyptic 
art by the Romans. 
Early Roman Examples 
According to Pliny the Elder, Scipio 
Africanus was the first Roman to have 
a sardonyx gem and Davenport ventures 
the suggestion that it was a cameo. 
This would seem likely, for I think 
intaglios were certainly used by the 
Romans before Scipio’s time. From 
Seneca we glean that a cameo portrait 
of Tiberius was owned by Paulus. 
Even before Pompey's day the Romans 
produced in glass imitations of both 
intaglios and cameos. However, we will 
not here consider what Pliny described 
as “the glass gems of the rings of the 
populace”-—how modern it sounds! 
The year 70 A. D. marks the apex in 
cameo-cutting, and for some three 
hundred years thereafter the art of the 
cameo was sustained above the some¬ 
what abrupt decline which followed and 
which was occasioned by Roman glyp¬ 
tic artists taking the place of the Greek 
gem cutters who had, through the 
earlier period, produced the so-called 
Roman gems. Never again was the 
work of such cameo cutters as Hero- 
philus, Hyllus, Epilhynchanus, Boethus, 
Philemon, Scylax, Sostrates, or Diodot- 
res to be surpassed. One wonders 
what has become of the famous “Gon- 
zaga Cameo,” an antique sardonyx 
•om page SO) 
bearing portraits of King Ptolemy II 
of Egypt and Arsinoe, his queen, a gem 
of three strata which was in the collec¬ 
tion of the Hermitage Museum in 
Petrograd at the time of recent revolu¬ 
tion. The British Museum, the Louvre 
and the Vienna Museum are rich in 
ancient cameos. 
Through the Middle Ages glyptic art 
was far less, in the deterioration, than 
even a shadow of the Roman decline 
in gem engraving. Fortunately ancient 
intaglios and cameos were kept and 
perhaps appreciated to some extent. 
At least the designers and makers of 
ecclesiastical ornaments employed them 
in an astounding fashion and we see 
Christian religuaries, shrines, etc., dec¬ 
orated with gems engraved with genre 
subjects from pagan mythology! 
The Italian Gems 
With the advent of the Italian Renais¬ 
sance, the revival of learning focused 
again the attention of many on the 
beauty of the engraved gems of an¬ 
tiquity. Cardinal Barbo (Pope Paul II) 
made an extensive collection of these 
gems which were, upon the Pontiff’s 
death, acquired by Lorenzo dei Medici, 
another ardent gem collector. Indeed, 
Lorenzo encouraged the revival of the 
glyptic art and soon Italian gem en¬ 
gravers were producing marvellously 
beautiful intaglios and cameos inspired 
by Greek and Roman gems. One of the 
gems from the Medici collection now 
reposes in the Cabinet des Medailles, 
Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris. It is a 
cameo portrait of Lorenzo himself. The 
cinquecento engraved gems never, of 
course, reached the height attained by 
the finest Greek gems, although the 
Italian work was of very high quality. 
At the Marlborough sale the cinque¬ 
cento cameo “Eros and Psyche” fetched 
some £2000, and was worth more. It 
is difficult, if indeed it is possible, to 
see wherein this particular cameo is not 
the equal of the finest cameos of an¬ 
tiquity. 
The 16th Century witnessed the pro¬ 
duction in Italy of an enormous number 
of engraved gems. Imitations of an¬ 
tique gems were common, frauds nu¬ 
merous. For some strange reason such 
collectors as Fulvio d’ Orsino, who had 
contemporary glyptic artists deliberate¬ 
ly fake antique gems, with fraudulent 
“ancient” signatures that he might fool 
the unwary with his brag, were com¬ 
mon enough during this period. In one 
of his famous “Lives,” good old Giorgio 
Vasari tells us that through the in¬ 
strumentality of Lorenzo dei Medici, a 
young Florentine named Giovanni delle 
Corniole learned the art of engraving 
gems and earned for his excellent work¬ 
manship an enduring name, as “testified 
by his countless works, great and small, 
but especially a large one with a por¬ 
trait of Fra Girolamo Savonarola, the 
idol of Florence for his preaching.” 
How furious Savonarola must have been 
at such vainglory in sardonyx, he who 
preached against the vanity of jewels! 
What a wonderful time the collectors 
of Vasari’s day must have had when we 
reflect on his remark that “At Rome, 
cameos, the sardonyx and other fine in¬ 
taglios are found daily.” 
French Glyptic Art 
When Catherine dei Medici came into 
France she brought many intaglios and 
cameos with her, and brought along her 
gem cutter, Giovanni Antonio dei 
Rossi, to help set their fashion. French 
gem cutters soon became adept in the 
art. It was a French glyptic artist, 
Julien de Fontenoy, for whom Queen 
Elizabeth sent to do her portrait in 
(Continued on page 106) 
