Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 10.djvu/153

passion for gems was so great that the poorest person owned one worth 10 minas, and where, according to‘than (Var. Hash, xn. c. 30), the skill in engraving was astonishing. The first cabinet (dactyliothcca) in Rome was that of Scaurus, a step-son of Sulla. Czesar is said to have formed six cabinets for public exhibition, and from the time of Augustus all men of refinement were supposed to bejudges both of the art and the quality of the stones. To this pretension is doubtless due most of the ex1st1ng gems engraved on large beautiful jacinths, garnets, sards, beryls, and anicthysts, leaving, as regards purely technical skill, nothing to be desn'ed. Except in portraiture, and in grylli or conceits, in which various things are combined into one, often with much skill, the subjects were as a rule only variations or adaptations of old types handed down from the Greeks. When new and distinctly ltoman subjects occur, such as the finding of the head on the Capitol, or Faustulus, or the she-wolf with the twins, both the stones and the work- manship are poor. In such cases, where the design stirs a genuine national interest, it may happen that very little of artistic rendering will be accept-able rather than otherwise, and much more is this true when the design is a symbol of some article of faith, as in the early Christian gems. There both the art and the material are at what may be called the zero of engraving; that is to say, it has reached the point beyond which barbarousness or folly sets in. The usual subjects on the early Christian gems are the fish, anehor, ship, dove, the good shepherd, and, according to Clemens, the lyre. Under the Gnosties, however, with whom there was more of specu- lation than of faith, symbolism was developed to an extent which no art Could realize without the aid of writing. A gem was to them a talisman more or less elaborate, and the difficulty is to make out how they carried them. Many specimens exist, but none show signs of mounting. The materials are usually hiematite or jaspar. As regards the designs, it is clear that Egyptian sources have been most drawn upon. But the symbolism is also largely aSSOciated with Mithraic worship. The name Abraan or Abrasax, which, from its frequency on these gems, has led to their being called also “ Abraan gems,” is, when the Greek letters of which it is composed are treated as Greek numerals, equal to 365, the num- ber of days in a year, and the same is the case with MEIGPAE.

More interesting, from the occasionally forcible portraiture and the splendour of some of the jacinths employed, are the Sassanian gems, which as a class may be said to represent the last stage of true gem engraving in ancient times. hi the middle ages and onwards metal stamps were found more serviceable for the purpose of sealing, and though engraved gems still continued to be a luxury of the great, the old traditions were broken through, as may be seen. for example, in the large crystal in the British Museum representing Susanna and the Elders, made by order of the F reneh king Lothair, 951F986. \Vith the revival of classical tastes under the patronage of popes and princes in the Cinquecento period, it was natural that this branch of art should have a new career of activity, which, after a lapse during the 17th century, again during the last century revived under an even greater amount of encour- agement from men of wealth and rank. In this last period the names of engravers who succeeded best in imitating classical designs Were Piehler (l’l. I., fig. 28), Natter, and the Englishmen Marchant (ti g. 29) and Burch. Compared with the Greek gems on the same plate, it will be seen that what at first sight is attractive as refined and delicate is after all mere pretence of refinement, and entirely devoid of the ancient spirit. The success with which modern engravers imposed on collectors is recorded in many instances, of which one may be taken as an instructive type. In the Bibliotheque in Paris (Chabonillet’s catalogue, No. 2337) is a gem familiarly known as the signet of Michelangelo, the subject being a Bacchanalian scene. So much did he admire it, the story says, that he copied from it one of the groups in his paintings in the Sistine chapel. The gem, however, is evidently in this part of it a mere copy from Michelangelo's group, and altogether is a later production.

The gems engraved in Plate I. show a progressive develop- ment of the art from the earliest times down to last century. They are all in the British Museum, and are enlarged to about a half more than their real size. No. 1, Porcelain scarab, from Camirus in Rhodes; No. 2, Carnelian, lentoid gem, from Ialyssus, in Rhodes; No. 3, Crystal, lentoid, also from lalyssus; No. 4, Paste scaraboid, from Tharras, in Sardinia; No. 5, Carnelian, head of a king; No. 6, Crystal scarab, Gorgon ; No. 7, Carnelian scarab, Citharist ; No. 8, Sard, female figure with water jar; No. 9, Steatite scaraboid, Citharist; Nos. 10—13, Four sides of an amethyst, Mienads; No. 14, Agate, Eos; No. 15, Carnelian, unknown; No. 16, Carnelian, head of Alexander the Great, as Helios; No. 17, Sard, head of Zeus; No. 18, Sardonyx cameo, Actaeon; No. 19, Sardonyx cameo, head of Athena; No. 20, Paste, Victory; No. 2], Paste, Mtenad; No. 22, Paste, Victory sacrificing bull; No. 23, Agate scaraboid, Priest; No. 24, Amethyst, head of Brutus ('4‘) from lthodcs, inscribed C . l . 0.; No. 25, Jacinth, Sassanian por- trait; No. 26, Gnostic gem; No. 27, Christian gem, the Good Shepherd; No. 28, Modern gem, by Pichlcr; No. 29, Modern gem, by Merchant.

Literature.—See M. A. Levy, Sicgcl uml Gemmen, with three plates of gems having Phoenician, Aramaic, and old Hebrew inscriptions, Breslau, 1869 ; and, on the same subject, De Vogue, in the Itcvuc Archéologz'guc, 1868 (xvii. ), p. 432, pl. 14—16; De Saulcy, in the Itcv. Arc/1., 1869 (xx.), p. 101, “ iccherches sur le costume chez les J uifs;” Victor Ancessi, L’E‘gypte ct Noise, Paris, 1875, giving on plate 7 a fanciful restoration of an Egyptian breastplate ; Soldi, in the 1201:. Arch.., 1874 (xxviii.), p. 147, on Babylonian cylinders; Count Gobincau, in the 12011. Arch, 1874 (xxvii.), p. 111 and p. 179, on early Oriental gem engraving. Pr. Lenormant, in the Ilcr. Arch. 1874 (xxviii.), pl. 12, gives five examples of early lentoid gems, and seven more gems of the same class are given by A. S. Murray in the Rev. Arch., 1878, pl. 20. On Greek and Roman gems the principal authorities are Kohler, Gcsammcltc Schrzflcn, iii. and v., and Stephani, in his notes to these volumes, and in the Compto- rcndu dc la. Comrm'ssz’on Impariale dc St Pclcrsbourg, 1870—1, p. 215 and pp. 221-224. Opposed to them is Brunn, in his Gcsclu'chtc dcr Gricchischcn Kilmtlcr (1859), ii. p. 443, where a full discussion of Greek and Roman gems will be found. See also Krause, Pyrgotclcs, llallc, 1856, and Bollcttino dcll’ Inst. I.’0m., 1831, p. 105; 1834, p. 116; and 1839, p. 99. In England the autho- rity is C. \V. King, Antique Ucms, 2d edit., London, 1806; Handbook of Engraved acme, 1866 ; Prccious Stones, 1865 ; Gnostic Gems, 1864; and appendix on ancient gems in Cesnola’s Cyprus, which gives 11 plates of gems. Of special interest as regards the stones used by ancients, and valuable as a criticism of a single collection, is Prof. Maskelyne’s Catalogch of the Marl- borough Collection, privately printed in 1870. This collection is now the property of Mr llromielow. On Abraan gems see Barzilai, Gil Abraxi, Trieste, 1873, and Matter, IIz'stoz'v-c du Gnosticisme. An indispensable book of reference is Ilaspe’s Catalogue of Tassic’s large series 0} Sulphur Casts. Among catalogues of public collec- tions are Tolken's Vcrzcz'chniss (l. prcuss. Gcmmcn, 1835; Chabouillet’s Catalogue dcs Came'cs ct Picrrcs Grcwécs de la Bibliothéq-uc I mpcrialc, Paris, 1856; and J ansson’s A'cdcrlandsch-I—lom. Daklyliotlwek, Ley- den, 1844. Older works are generally of small critical value, but the following may be mentioned 2—Winekelmann, Description dos Plcrrcs Gravécs du Fcu Baron dc Stosch, Florence, 1760 ; Visconti, Opera Varte, ii. p. 115—386; Mariette, Traité dcs Pz'crrcs Gra-récs; Millin, Picrrcs Gravécs, and Introduction to l'Etudc dos Pz'crres G’rare’cs, Paris, 1796.

(a. s. m.)

 

Gemsbok.

GEMSBOK (Orgx gazella, Gray), a species of antelope,

abounding on the dry yet fertile plains of South Africa, where it feeds on the bulbs of water-root and other kinds of succulent vegetation, by means of which the antelopes of those regions are able to subsist without water for months together. It is a large and powerful. animal, measuring about 5 feet in length and over 3 feet 1n height at the shoulders. Its horns, situated on the same plane with its forehead, exceed 2 feet in length, are. almost

straight, and are obscurer ringed throughout their lower