GREEK AND ROMAN INTAGLIO RINGS.
GREEK AND ROMAN INTAGLIO RINGS.
In proportion to the extended cultivation of taste and the increased demand, the ranks of the incisori were repleted. Among so many contestants rivalry and emulation had a very happy effect in forming and creating artists who were indeed eminent, and whose works even to-day sparkle as jewel-gems in the diadem which crowns the history of their place in art.
The perfect finish, polish, and detail of their choicest examples render them superior to the gems of any other people, even to many that come from Roman sources.
It is often almost impossible intelligently to explain the difference between the gems of the Greeks and the Romans; such power of distinguishing one from the other is only to be gained by long observation and close study of the subject.
Many of them, however, seem to say to us whenever we meet them in exile, “We are of Ancient Greece, Grecians of the epoch and home of Pericles the patron, and Phidias the practitioner.” We are reminded of these classic, silent monuments when we meet and recognize the strictly glyptic work of the incisori of the land of the Parthenon. It is by comparison and contrast that we study and classify their gems. Beautiful stones have recently been discovered at Mycenæ, among which are engraved gems bearing effigies of animals curiously and artistically drawn, and which, bytheir Oriental style, prove that the ancient Greeks, who bequeathed so much to their successors, also inherited art-models from a people 1000 yearsB. C.
At first the colonists incised what was known as the Hellenic style, and then, as they fraternized with the Romans, and as the Romans made incisions under the Greek teaching, their glyptic works showed the Greek influence, and such works constituted the gems of the Græco-Romano. Many of the intaglios by Romans, of this school, were signed in Greek characters, and can be seen in my collection. This act of a Roman signing his name in characters other than the Latin letters peculiar to his own country shows how Grecian art was appreciated in the Græco-Roman epoch.
GRÆCO-ROMAN.
GRÆCO-ROMAN.
The classic multitudinous gems of the Roman period: their emperors, statesmen, warriors, and poets—in fact, some of their gems have given to us the only perfect portraits in miniature that have been preserved from ancient time; incidents of their conflicts, their sports, games, and apparel—with the mass of chimeras and at times mysteries. The endless grand historical cameos, some of which in my collection represent nineteen and even twenty-two figures in good relief carefully engraved on a single stone. We know that gem-engraving in Rome in the prolific period was celebrated for the greatest diversity of subjects both in cameos and intaglios. Rome, the patroness of the ancient world.
Rome did not achieve this phenomenal position unaided, though in its palmiest days it was the art shrine of the nations. To attain this position it drew from comparatively distant sources, and borrowed talent wherever it was available.
When Rome’s reputation as the glyptic school was heralded and established throughout the nations as the art centre of the world, it became as we have inferred, the vortex into which hosts of artisans were attracted, and who, when once there, established themselves.
They were well received; were elated with plenty of occupation, emolument, and good prices; in their new life they identified themselves with their fellow incisori, and became Romans, or, at least, Græco-Romans.
In fact, the variety in styles and designs produced by all the ancient peoples of Italy was due to emigration. Profiting by the culture and art experience of Etruria, Rome learned from the Etruscan architects, potters, die-sinkers, and gem-engravers.
They learned from these more ancient incisori many useful lessons which enabled them to accomplish wonders. Within the limited space available on those little gem stones, they depicted with complicated minuteness details of events in actual history, and displayed remarkable tact and astonishing powers of composition in their rendering of groups of figures and mythological deities in scenes of quasi historical events.
Though we have seen the work of the Græco-Romans bearing evidence of combined influence and instruction, there was even at that very epoch a school, or powerful class of artists, in Rome, who retained their own individuality, who were Romans of Rome, and from whose hands, and from their successors, we have inherited grand cameos and intaglios, portraying their emperors, statesmen, philosophers, mythological subjects, and occasionally groups recording important events in Roman history.
Considering we find Roman glyptic work of merit until nearly the close of the second centuryA. D., therewas in all a period of good gem-engraving covering about eight hundred years.
Throughout all this time the glyptic art flourished under the protection of kings and emperors, who for the general encouragement of the civilizing arts, served their own interests and gratified their tastes for luxury and the beautiful by their constant patronage of gem-engraving.
The unique mystic gems of the Gnostics, known as the Abraxas, are a series by themselves; they had no prototype.
Their strangely decorated and inscribed stone tokens are so characteristic of the sect that they also are easily recognized. The task of explaining the meaning of these incisions is the more difficult, as the veil is almost impenetrable which obscures the history of everything that pertains to these little stone fetiches of the Gnostics.
The very disciples who carried those amuletic gems did so without understanding the meaning of the marks and symbols engraved upon them. They evidently were sacred types of their superstitious creed, invented and placed there by their mentors or priests.
They were Pagans, Jews, and nominal Christians, and we find in their inexhaustible inscriptions a series of emblems, Hebrew and Syriac, which dimly show forth Christ the Son, and Sun of Righteousness with ΑΔΟΝΑΙ, and the seven Greek vowels symbolic of the seven heavens. These Greek vowels have often amused me when I have shown an Abraxas talisman with long inscription to some Greek scholar not acquainted withtheir gems, who would stumble when he reached the other characters.
SOMMERVILLE COLLECTION.
574 obverse.
574 reverse.
562 obverse.
569
562 reverse.
564 obverse.
564 reverse.
573 obverse.
573 reverse.
ABRAXAS OR GNOSTIC GEMS.
The religion of Jesus Christ was by no means established peaceably and immediately in the days following his crucifixion and resurrection. By a close reading of several of the Epistles of the New Testament you will see that during the first and second centuries many were the beliefs and even schisms among those who thought that they believed in Christ. In the second Epistle to the Corinthians there is evidence that the learned doctors raised altar in opposition to altar. None of them were avowedly reared by the Gnostics, yet the Apostle Paul recognized their opposition to the orthodox growing faith and combated them, knowing that Christianity at that critical moment was constantly losing adherents who, through the sophistries of the Abraxas, were daily relinquishing their ardent hold on the new hope in Christ.
Undoubtedly this Abraxas sect, who made so many cabalistic talismans, which were so blindly accepted and worn by their disciples, had among them many who knew of our Saviour. It appears from history, and from their mystic characters, that they had a clearer appreciation of Christ than a just or reasonable fear of the prince of the region of darkness, as Zoroaster termed the chief of inferno. They derived their idea of Satan, the arch tempter, from the appellation given him by certain sects in Central Asia, where, to better deceive their victims, they spoke of him as an angel oflight. In modern times the lives of many men have proved that they had no desire to repulse Satan, but rather lived harmoniously in fellowship with him as their guide.
St. Paul besought the Christians to guard well the precious truths revealed and confided to them, and to fear and fly from the profane novelties that were threatening the welfare of their souls (I. Timothy, vi).
In a word, these great pagan monuments were the forerunners and the models of many of the small and portable talismans that were freely disseminated by the priests of the Abraxas to their disciples and their followers.
One important fact must be understood. The signs, symbols, the unintelligible hieroglyphs of the Gnostics, the Basilidians, which we find on the Abraxas gems—almost all talismans—are the mystic representations of a sect thus made up of people of several nations, all of whom in their aspirations sought for knowledge of the invisible power, that unquestionably had created and who governed all things, whom, though unseen, they served and feared.
SOMMERVILLE COLLECTION.
561 obverse.
561 reverse.
1431
568 obverse.
568 reverse.
565
ABRAXAS OR GNOSTIC GEMS.
The events narrated in the New Testament of our Lord Jesus Christ resulted in the drawing together of his followers, who daily sought to worship their risen Redeemer, notwithstanding the terrible opposition of the heathen autocrats of Rome.
Very naturally in proportion to the imperial opposition the faithful became more fervent. As they could not publicly meet for worship and prayer, they were compelled to do so clandestinely.
Now in order that only the faithful should enter, and that the enemies might be detected, a system of tesseræ was invented, and soon these were made in the form of engraved pietradura; the designs always were of the simplest character—a dove, two or three fish, two palms crossed, etc., and other religious gem-tokens; this formed the glyptic epoch known as the Early Christian gems.
Be it understood, there was no representation of “God,” the “Father,” or of “Christ;” only simple symbols of the class already described; symbols of their simple faith.
This was a period of glyptic work in which a series of gems were engraved by a people who pursued theiravocation under peculiarly trying circumstances; they were the “Early Christians.”
The children born of those who had already espoused the new doctrine were taught with the first lessons of life to know, to revere, and to trust in the Saviour; with their earliest lisping words, from the cradle they learned to plead in prayer for divine protection.
The earliest Christians, the first converts, born in paganism, had not the opportunities with which their offspring and descendants were favored; they had to renounce the superstitions in which they had been reared, and were often obliged to sever the friendly ties of youth.
These first enrolled with the followers of Christ, pagans, whose convictions impelled them to accept the Redeemer, offered to their inquiring hearts, commenced anew lives with many pagan prejudices and customs clinging to them.
Some of them were incisori, and it is interesting to observe among the comparatively few gems of this epoch the evidence of transition. Many of these gems unquestionably bearing some of the simpler Christian decoration were still adorned with pagan designs. On one we find Astarte; on others, Serapis, Mercury, Venus, or Apollo. The divinity, the loveliness of expression sometimes given to these transition portraits seem to have been the work of artists whose souls were imbued with the singular beauty of that Divine Man whom Publius Lentulus announced to the Senate as “theprophet of truth,” a man whose personal beauty excelled all human creatures—and yet the effigy really was of some pagan deity. These gems, however, which were characterized by remnants of pagan decoration, were only of the epoch immediately succeeding the institution of the sect of “followers of Christ,” and preceding the dawning struggle of the “Early Christians,” to establish their belief and to retain their rights as citizens. They renounced the idolatrous religion of the nation, and their glyptic work was generally typical of the purity and simplicity of their faith and their devotion to its observance.
One might naturally suppose that the gems of the early Christians would abound in representations of scriptural events and incidents of the life of Christ. Such was not the case; these subjects were abundantly produced by the Byzantines about the fifth centuryA. D.This can be accounted for from the fact that most of these subject-gems were engraved to decorate the sacred vessels and paraphernalia of the church altars in Byzantium.
With Constantine we find the Byzantine epoch in its maturity. With the simplicity of the early Christians we have remarked that everything like representation of the Godhead was eliminated or rather forbidden.
It was the Byzantines who created for the gem market token cameos and intaglios on which were incised effigies of the Holy Family, and incidents in every phase in that series of events that never has been equalled in historic interest in the records of time: the birth, life, trial, sufferings, death, and resurrection of the Son of God.
Elaborate details characterized the cameos picturing the triumphs of that Christian emperor and the portraiture of his mother Helena.
SOMMERVILLE COLLECTION.
589
580
590
578
575
BYZANTINE CHRIST.
The annunciation, the visitation, the birth in the manger, the adoration of the wise men and the magi, the bearing of the cross, the crucifixion, etc.
With the Byzantine epoch we meet with the Emperor Constantine as we turn from the first period of decadence, in fact, almost demise, of the art of the incisori.
The justice, energy, and enterprise of Constantine showered benefits on all industrious men in the Eastern Roman world. Skilled workmen, spared from the absorbing conflicts of war, anew devoted themselves in peace to their mechanical avocations.
Prosperity ruled and was assured to the people. Foremost among these artisans were the gem-engravers; the demand for their glyptic productions, and the amount produced, was phenomenal.
The dignity of Constantine’s successful empire was sustained by a retinue of courtiers; luxury characterized all the imperial decorations of his palace.
His willing subjects supplied his demands and gratified his refined tastes by zealously executing his liberal commands in all branches of art, and especially in the art of gem-engraving, which contributed largely to the court adornment.
Recognizing the near relationship between gems and coins, we here see that Constantine, shortly after he had established his empire in Byzantium, removed the pagan emblems from the coins of the empire, and issued others on which he caused to be impressed the legend illustrating and recording the peculiar incident of his conversion;to this was added a phœnix, emblematic of the renovation of his empire, together with the monogram of Christ, and the Angel of Victory, which in his vision had directed his course at the time of his conversion to Christianity and triumph over the pagan enemy.
At the time of his baptism at Nicomedia he clad himself in a white robe, and from that time he never resumed the imperial purple.
This incident was also engraved, and formed the subject of a design on a later coin.
The engravers employed by Constantine were incisori of the highest rank of that period; none others were in favor. They executed portraits of his family, of his wife Fausta, of his sons, and of himself—in combat, in bust, on horseback, in imperial power; always laureated, and principally on cameos, very few intaglios being cut at this time.
Several important examples have survived the rack and ruin of time, and may be seen in the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris, the British Museum at London, the Royal and Imperial Collections of Vienna and St. Petersburg, and in my collection.
These unique gems, those commissioned by Constantine, however, form a small proportion of the glyptic harvest from the Byzantine period. With Constantine commences the series of scriptural cameos, which continue during several years in Byzantia.
The great number of cameos preserved from this epoch bearing scriptural subjects, which were orderedand engraved for reliquaries and every description of vessels, and for the adornment of altar book-bindings, for church and cathedral ceremonies, far exceeds in quantity those imperial portraits, and to an appreciator of distinctive specialties in a representative art collection they are more interesting.
BYZANTINE.
BYZANTINE.
After a few heads of Christ attributed to the Sassanians, we meet in the reign of Constantine the first gem portraits of our Saviour. These sacred portraits, even at times rudely rendered, have often more divinity in them than many similar subjects of a later period.
The distinctive, most characteristic, Byzantine gems are the large series of scriptural cameos, designed in relief for the ornamentation of the sacred vessels and other paraphernalia on the altars of the churches at the Byzantine capital.
The era in the decline in art was sensibly marked in the glyptic branch. The very rude and often grotesquely drawn designs we meet in this long period, the Middle Ages, may well be termed the dark days.
The eras of art in the history of nations have been marked by the same changing characteristics; light has invariably been succeeded by darkness; there are shadows ever following the bright rays of the sun. This day of imagery and sculpture, feeble at its dawn, radiant in its morning, powerful in the glory and effulgence of its meridian, deteriorated as evening advanced, faded in the twilight, was at last veiled in the long period of decadence—the Middle Ages, the night of art.
These people, so credulous and so trusting in these token-stones, by degrees formed themselves into groups, at first of two or three, with ties of pious friendship; subsequently these associations gradually increased in the numbers of their adherents until the growing fanatic idea of closing one’s eyes on the sinful world was the incentive which formed at first asylums, and soon after monasteries; and the monastic life became popular; wavering men, feeling themselves too weak to face the temptations of the world, resorted to these holy retreatsand there sought God. Few reasonable men can be truly happy without occupation, and, happily for us, these recluses saw the importance and the historic interest of engraved gems. Many interesting intaglios were thus spared from loss and destruction.
The numerous orders of monks during this barbarous epoch collected all that possibly could be saved from the destroying avalanche, and with great diligence transcribed on parchment types of the existing literature.
The laborers in the limited field of art in the Middle Ages were these dwellers in monasteries. To them we are indebted for some rude fibres in the fabric with which this period of darkness is canopied; they walked under it in the simplicity of monastic life; and to us at least it conveys the lesson that man has forgotten so much, knows so little, and has so much to learn.
Their intaglios were generally of a spiritual and devotional character, though some of them relieved the tedium of cloister life by creating inbasso-rilievoon bone and ivory the most ludicrous and mirth-provoking designs.
The subjects of the engraved gems of the eighth, ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries are to a great extent unmeaning figures and heads—portraits of unknown personages, now and then reproductions of ancient Roman emperors and military heroes of historic renown, yet poorly rendered and bad in execution.
There are also many inexplicable subjects, portraying groups of three four, five, and six figures, evidently intendedto commemorate events in history; also mythological processions, both in rude intaglios and equally mediocre cameos, giving triumphs of Silenus and Bacchus, portraying these heroes in forms, the drawing of which would raise blushes on their cheeks could they return to earth and be allowed to criticise their effigies. Silenus, even full of wine, would have growled and remonstrated, and would have pronounced some of them absurd misrepresentations; they, however, are very interesting, if only on account of their contrast with the examples of Greek and Roman glyptic art.
In this epoch, again, we find instances of the sensitiveness of the numismatic branch of the art of gem-engraving, for the models of all pieces of money are intaglios, and thus far they are related to the glyptic art; and it has always been the first industry giving evidence of a decline.
The view of these relics of cloister art convinces usthat they of the dark ages did not contribute the truly beautiful.... Yet shadows pass “with time and the hour.”... Night is passing, ... comes the gray, ... comes the dawn, ... comes the morning light. Creatures that at evening ceased their song, tune now their pipes and sing again; they chant anon the requiem of the Night of Art; and yet anon, they sing the coming of the light. They celebrate at last, with hope, the renewing of all things beautiful in art. The orb of day gilds the horizon; man beholds the aurora of approaching day.
In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, under the encouragement of the Medici family, skilled artisans again emigrated to Italy as coadjutors in the great revival of all that was beautiful in gem-engraving.
They created, for the glyptic phase of art, a position almost as important as it had enjoyed in the first centuryA. D.
It is not surprising that comparatively so few engraved gems have been handed down to us when we consider the tides of the last twenty centuries as a great sea which has borne to the shores of civilized Europe, and later to America, specimens of ancient art creations—that sea, at times placid, yet ever and anon turbulent with devastating storms, whose iconoclastic waves broke upon the ancient sites of antiquity, destroying treasures that thus have been irreparably lost to archæological science and to our museums.
As a child becomes restless with the consciousness of coming day before it fully wakes from sleep, man, weary of this night of ignorance and the atmosphere of barbarism—fretful on his couch under the yoke of tyranny, striving to shake it off while yet enveloped by the shadesof error, rose up to seek an element he knew not, a light he dreamed would come!
SOMMERVILLE COLLECTION.
624
601
634
632
1358
621
631
616
RENAISSANCE-MEDICI PERIOD.
He burst the cords that bound his strength; he pierced the clouds which dulled his vision, and, leaving his prison-house, reached forth his fearless arm, and pushing aside the sombre folds of the long intervening veil, peered into the outer world of progress, and in the gray gloom he descried a distant terrace. With rapid strides, through furrows of popular prejudice and cinders of past magnificence, over crumbled arch and fallen pillar, frieze, and pediment, he sped his way; nor flagged nor halted, till the summit reached, he stood and gazed with earnest look out into the coming time; he beheld in the vista before him many streams flowing into the sea of the future. In the horizon gleamed again the omen of coming day; it was the harbinger of a new birth.
The light of truth flashed upon his mind, discovering to him his freed intellect. Unlike the denizens of the earlier age of luxury and repletion, he stood a thinking man, refreshed, invigorated, and ready for work; and quickly he applied himself; called forth his kinsman; his voice was heard throughout the land; men awoke everywhere and wrought in the ateliers of the new life.
Through the air came strains as of music, from creaking of timber, cracking of stone, the carol of the painter, hammer and anvil, plashing oar, wheel and shaft, mallet and chisel, and with the new demand upon the gem-engravers came—the Oratorio of the Renaissance.
With this awakening came another influx of skilled artisans into Italy, not to compete, as before, in the great established art market of the world. Now they came in response to appeals for master-workmen, came to instruct, to encourage the new birth; to lead the drowsy ones out into the full light of day, the day of a rising constellation in which once more shone brilliantly a meritorious school of gem-engravers.
Though Germany, France, and other nations shared in the work, Italy guarded the cradle of the Renaissance, and as a faithful, loving parent, watched the developing features of the youth, which grew apace, reading there the promise of a growing power that was destined to lead future generations to excellence and prosperity in art.
Italy accomplished the first great work of this period by furnishing models for both industrial and fine arts, infusing vitality into other nations. The influential families of the Medici and Farnese, Popes Leo X. and Paul III., many cardinals and nobles, were instrumental in the revival of gem-engraving; especially Lorenzo de Medici contributed to its redevelopment and growth by inducing artists to devote themselves to its practice and bestowing on them his liberal patronage.
The vigorous manner of artists of this period is so marked that even in the reproduction of antique designs a connoisseur can recognize their peculiar style. Their original works are highly meritorious, attaining a great degree of excellence. Many rose to eminence; some,not content with rising in the firmanent of the dawning effulgence, aspired to positions in the bright constellation of fame, producing engraved gems for the ornamentation of costumes, armor, inlaying and embossing of vases, tankards, etc.
Constant encouragement was given to this branch of art-industry throughout the fifteenth and part of the sixteenth century; but after the death of the Emperor Charles V., in 1558, recurred another period of decline. Private and royal accumulations of art works were again the victims of depredation; cabinets and museums were pillaged and scattered by military marauders, as one after another the great cities of the Continent of Europe were besieged and conquered.
The glyptic, of all the arts, was the most easily affected by the changing fortunes of nations.
These circumstances compelled artists to give their attention more particularly to church architecture, to the production of large devotional basso-rilievos for the altar, and sculptured figures, which, though representing sacred subjects, were often too voluptuous in form, and lacking the essential qualities of true art.
In the last twenty years of the eighteenth century gem-engraving received fresh impetus; new practitioners were enrolled from Germany, England, and France.
Some of these resided many years in England, pursuing their profession assiduously and profitably. Inthis period quantities of intaglios and cameos were reproduced from the most salable antique subjects. To supply the wants of enthusiastic amateurs frauds were freely committed, by close imitation, and the insertion of signatures of celebrated Greek and Roman engravers, though the age produced artists of the highest ability and honor.
The works of Natter, Sirletti, Pickler, Marchand, Pistrucci, Santarelli, and others come to us so directly from their hands that we feel they almost belong to our day, and we think of them as of acquaintances.
Many of the gems of Giovanni Pickler compare favorably with the finest incisions of the Greek, and even with the work of the renowned Dioscorides.
During the latter part of the eighteenth century and the commencement of the nineteenth, monarchs and noblemen indulged in making collections of gems to such an extent that the list of patrons increased competition, and fabulous prices were obtained from such buyers as the Empress Catherine II. of Russia, the Prince Frederick of Prussia, the Duke of Orleans, George III., the Empress Josephine of France, andmany of the English nobility, among others the Dukes of Devonshire and Marlborough.
Almost until now no plea has been offered for glyptology as a factor contributing historical data. The mass of scientists have been contented with musty old volumes, and these little message-bearing stones have been regarded as nothing more than curious ancient articles of luxury, yet you will remark we do not look on them in that light; we recognize, as we justly should, each and every piece as part of a great story, recording and illustrating many epochs and eras in this world’s history, and patiently we have been seeking to replace each fragment into its proper place in the inscribed diagram, until we are convinced that we read thereon many things that no manuscripts or books have communicated to us.
My entire collection in the Free Museum of Science and Art of the University of Pennsylvania must be examined to see types of all these epochs. It may be well to notice here three or four very remarkable gems of which monographs have also been published.
Ariadne is seated on the rocks of Dia, where Bacchus found her; at her feet is her panther. Bacchus bears in his hand a thrysus; his javelin with its point in the form of a pine cone; his head wreathed with ivy and grape leaves; his hand lovingly placed on sad Ariadne’s shoulder, who has just been deserted by Theseus. Bacchus, deeply in love (which is indicated by the figure of Cupid), says to her, “I shall care for thee.” The panther at the feet of Ariadne is emblematic of the principal and most important incident in her life, her love for Theseus.
Ariadne was the daughter of Minos, King of Crete. She fell in love with Theseus when he went as one of the seven youths whom the Athenians were obliged tosend every year with seven maidens to Crete to be devoured by the Minotaur.
Ariadne provided Theseus with a sword with which he slew the Minotaur, and with a thread which enabled him to find his way out of the labyrinth; they then fled to the island of Naxos (Dia), where Theseus, warned by a god in a dream, deserted her. Bacchus arrived opportunely from India, finding Ariadne in a state of grief and consternation, which even added to her charming beauty; he quenched her tears, consoled her, and took her to himself. This exquisite gem is a fine representation of Renaissance work (see plate on p. 81).
Among examples of antique glyptic art, by referring to my late work on “Engraved Gems: Their Place in the History of Art,” you will find an extended notice of the superb ancient cameo on chrysoprase of Jupiter Ægiochus. It is the eighth of importance in the remarkable antique cameos that have been preserved from the early centuries after Christ. It is of remarkable dimensions, being 167 millimetres in height by 130 millimetres in breadth.
It is of the close of the epoch of Marcus Aurelius or the earlier years of the reign of Commodus. The style is that of the Græco-Roman art. The work is very beautiful for that epoch, and there rests in this head of the master of the gods an accent of grandeur in whichone feels the reflection of the original Greek of the better centuries, imitated here by the engraver of the Græco-Roman age.
SOMMERVILLE COLLECTION.
JUPITER ÆGIOCHUS.
It is an interesting circumstance, which merits particular attention, that the cameo Zulian coming from Ephesus and this Jupiter Ægiochus are certainly of the workmanship of Asia Minor.
Early in this century this cameo made part of the celebrated Northwick Collection of England. Afterwards it was acquired by a wealthy connoisseur in France, and later passed into the possession of M. Feuardent, Paris, when, with his permission, an engraving of it appeared, with five quarto pages of text and notes, in theGazette Archæologique, Paris, 1877, edited by Baron J. De Witte, Membre de l’Institut and François Lenormant.
M. Adrien Longperier, the distinguished glyptologist and savant of the Institut de France, some thirty years ago made a study of this gem, and seriously contemplated its acquisition for France; he urged the French Government to authorize its purchase for the collection in the Salle des Pierres gravées in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, or for the Museum of the Louvre. Several other museums also negotiated for its purchase, but the late owner being firm in his demand, the price caused them to delay, and now it belongs to America, being part of my collection.
Among the most important and interesting antique gems in my collection is one engraved when Constantine held the Roman Empire in Byzantia, which came into the possession of the Court of Russia.
The Empress Catherine II., wishing to confer a great favor and special reward on an ambassador to her court from her remarkable collection in the Museum of the Hermitage at St. Petersburg, presented this antique gem to him in 1785. Twenty-five years afterwards, at his death in Greece, it was sold, and was piously guarded during thirty years by a collector in the Hellenic peninsula. After that it became the property of Bieler in Styria.
I came into possession of this remarkable gem after more than five years’ negotiations with its owner, and subsequently with his heirs.
It is a cameo of great importance in itself. Prof. C. W. King, of Trinity College, Cambridge, England, said, “It is by far the most important of all similar works of the Lower Empire hitherto published.”
It is of very considerable dimensions (6 × 4 inches), being the eleventh in point of magnitude of those already existing in any cabinet. It is a maculated sard, dark-reddish amber color, with slight white, dark sepia, and burnt sienna spots or maculation.
The subject is a Triumph of Constantine. This portrait of that Byzantine Emperor is considered very faithful.As I have often remarked in connection with the numismatic phase of my subject, we can in this case establish the likeness of Constantine by confronting it with the fine gold coins of his realm and reign.
Among the auxiliary figures on the gem is Constantine’s mother Helena, she who found the true cross; also Crispus his son, and his wife Fausta.
The Emperor is being crowned by a Victory, who stands behind him borne in a triumphal car, the four horses walking and led by a soldier in front. Constantine holds the reins in his left hand, but in his right a roll of paper (volumen), instead of the customary eagle-tipped sceptre.
In the front of the group is a standard inscribed “S. P. Q. R.,” the bearer of the staff being concealed by the horses of the car; as are also the lictors, whose fasces are seen elevated in the air above the horses’ backs, in the upper field of the composition. Behind the car stands Crispus and Fausta, both in front face; Crispus is pointing to the labarum, and evidently relating to Fausta all the circumstances of its introduction into the scene. At the opposite end of the gem stands Helena, who, with the soldier leading the quadriga, forms a balance to the other pair.
Much labor and skill have been expended by the artist upon the face of the triumphing Cæsar, in order to leave no doubt as to his identity, and with such success that the well-known Augustus-like profile of Constantine may be recognized at the first glance.
We have found here unquestionably information not to be obtained from any other source. If ancient engraved stones had never been unearthed or found, we would have been ignorant to-day of much that is interesting and important concerning the historic chain which now connects us with the traditions of men in the incipiency of art thousands of years before the era of manuscripts.
We hold and esteem the Holy Bible not only as our guide and as the book of God’s laws, but also as one of the most perfect compends of the history of the world from all known time. The earliest mention of the profession of gem-cutting is in the thirty-first chapter of Exodus, from the first to the fifth verse, inclusive:
“And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, See, I have called by name Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah: and I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, to devise cunning works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass, and in cutting of stones, to set them,” etc., “and to work in all manner of workmanship.” This commission was for the Jews to adorn theark of the testimony and to attach to the Esod a part of the vestiture of the grand sacerdotal of the Israelites. Our observation of this branch of art has been strictly in accordance with our intended plan.
We have regarded almost solely all these beautiful stones in the light of art, with a view of considering their comparative art-merits; yet I have always seen in their history another and somewhat important phase, to me an interesting one: that is, their connection with the traditions, legends, and annals of religion. We find on them tenets of paganism, mysticism, mythology, and the Christian religion—symbols, dogmas, and pictured revelations of creeds of many nations and of people almost otherwise unknown—what may indeed be classified as religious stone-literature.
Skilful utilization of the colored strata and maculation of onyxes and agates depict fire and water as objects of adoration; altars rendered sacred by their inscriptions, each with its patron god upon it or hovering near; characters there inscribed telling to whose service they were dedicated—now to a supreme being beloved, though absent; again, to a deity adored, though unseen.
Every tribe seems to have had a Father above, though we do not meet with the vague superscription, “To the unknown God.”
On every side objects of veneration: the heavens; innumerable mention of deities dwelling therein; plenteous aspirations and appeals to their clemency, forbearance, and protection.
These talismanic gems, whenever they are religiously inscribed, I treasure as tablets of faith—a faith which, though often erroneously placed, was fervent and abiding as it was indelibly registered.
Rambling in many strange countries, seeing palaces, costumes, men, and manners, this subject, paramount to them all, has often received my attention—a theme the most precious to the scattered races of the human family, their religion. It is worthy of remark that so large a proportion of the intaglios and seals were of a religious character.
The ancient residents near the sea and on all the frontier of Asia Minor had their religious token-gems.
In this day of enlightenment naturally we are astonished that men could have believed in these gods or in such theories and dogmas, and expressing astonishment that they could have trusted in these talismans or hoped for benefits from them. We wonder at the absurd codes of mythological religion; yes, let us call it so; that is what it was for these people; they knew not our God, they had never heard of our divine Master.
Until the revelation of Christ to us, man naturally had to look somewhere for refuge for his soul; he had to cling to some unseen hand, lest he should fall.
Do we often realize what modern Christianity is? These pagans, of whose religions we have so many little stone monuments, were all anterior to and existed during ages before that revelation.
Christians of to-day, reflect: all these heathen, as youno doubt esteem them, were earnest in the performance of their duties, their prayers, their adoration, and their sacrifices—many of them more devout than some of us under the light of the twentieth century.
True, these religions were the inventions of men, the outcome of the longings and yearnings of sympathetic men for a superior guiding and protecting power—Deity, if you will allow it—to which to turn and in which to hope.
They worshipped faithfully, adored sincerely, obeyed implicitly, lived simple lives, in keeping with their primitive faith. Was it not reasonable, this worship of a people who had no divine revelation? Was it not beautiful? Can you not even now see something to admire in devotional exercises held in God’s open air, turning in adoration myriads of earnest eyes upon the Sun, “the beauty and the glory of the day,” devoutly praising from the heart the majesty and the power of the Supreme Being, the Maker and the Ruler of this benign light? Their principal fête, on which they all assembled joyfully and gratefully to bow before the glorious orb, was on the same day we have accepted as the anniversary of the birth of Christ our Redeemer.
And so it was with those who venerated and carried engraved emblems of those incomprehensible elements, Fire and Water.
As symbolic of the inscrutable power the Parsees keep a flame constantly burning upon an altar in the inner temple; so sacred is it that only the higherpriests set apart for that service can enter therein; yet through their mediation thousands participate in the ceremony and enjoy the consolation of its power—a force of terrible destructibility, yet with the genial phase which comforts and contributes to the nourishment of man. This form of worship originated in Persia, and when its disciples emigrated and distributed themselves throughout many countries and islands of India and the shores of the neighboring seas, they carefully carried the sacred fire with them; and it is believed it has never ceased to burn during many centuries. Red and spotted maculation in agates have been utilized by incisori to represent the flame of an altar fire.
Even to this day many of these objects in stone are treasured and valued by men and women in secluded villages in the East; they hold and guard them as religious heirlooms. I have bartered with them successfully, and have bought their bracelets, finger-rings, and nose-rings; yet so highly have these sacred talismans been esteemed that those which I most desired have rarely and only with difficulty been obtained from their superstitious possessors.
In the two or three centuries succeeding the advent of Christ the Abraxas flourished and engraved the mass of religious mystic talismans (already described in their place in this book). Their priests or pastors, in the term accepted by us, prepared these amulets, engraving upon them attributes and symbols of the MostHigh; they taught their followers to wear them close to their hearts, these reminders of their heavenly Father, these rude glyptic lights that kept them nearer to God. I do not, cannot, find it absurd. When you have considered this subject as now presented, you will perhaps view with new interest these devotional tokens, after many years of travel and research brought together and classified in my cabinet.
A large class of ancient seems were historical. In my collection may be found a series of cameos, all works of the most able artists of the epoch of Trajan, which are now esteemed in Rome as works of the highest merit.
They portray the pleasures of the hunting expeditions, the wars, and other incidents in the life of Trajan and Titus Vespasianus.
These cameos were the subjects of thebasso-rilievoswhich ornamented a triumphal arch erected in honor of Trajan.
In the reign of the Emperor Constantine the Romans despoiled this monument of all these subjects tributary to Trajan, and adorned with them the arch which they then built for Constantine. It was said in those days no emperor had ever equalled Constantine in building up the Empire, and therefore they did not hesitate to dismantle a monument of his predecessor.
SOMMERVILLE COLLECTION.