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sequence, animal forms being succeeded by deities, these again by the
striking deeds and attributes of heroes and myths, and finally by portraits,
historical representations and allegories.
One habit of the ancients in the matter of carved gems the
moderns are now imitating in the gold settings for precious stones
that which once was engraved upon the stones themselves being now
wrought in the metal surrounding them. That is, bacchanalian subjects
were often engraved on amethyst, supposed to prevent intoxication
; marine, on beryl, the gem of the sea ; martial, on the fiery red
sard or jasper; rural, on green jasper or prase; celestial on the pure
chalcedony.
The great classic gem engravers of ancient times were followed
by gradually deteriorating talent till the art fell to its lowest estate.
It was practically lost during the general fall of the arts under the
Byzantine Empire in the ninth century. But with the rise of Lorenzo
de Medici a new impetus, under his patronage, was observed. A
number of Italians, never equal to their ancestors, worked with more
or less success to the middle of the sixteenth century. It was a little
later than this that Nassaro of Verona, who engraved under Francis
I, produced a crucifixion on heliotrope. The ancients believed the
red spots on green jasper, their heliotrope, our bloodstone, to be the
life blood of Phaeton, the god of the sun, overturned and wounded by
his chariot in the sky, hence "heliotrope," from helium, the sun. In
this remarkable work of Nassaro's, the red spots seemed drops of
blood issuing from the wounds of Christ a striking but rather degenerate
application of the art.
Next, the Germans, in the seventeenth century, under Rudolph
II, for whom Lehmann engraved at Vienna, became interested in the
subject. Natter, of Nuremburg, who died in 1763, was celebrated
for his intagli, really very beautiful, but now pronounced by the best
authorities to be merely imitations of the antique. In the nineteenth
century, a few English engravers made themselves felt, but the
modern lover of carved gems would exchange all subsequent works
for one little subject by Evodus or Discorides, or even a far more
humble artist flourishing any time between 400 B. C. and the end of
the Augustan period, say 200 A; D. It was around the former date
that fine gem engravers and their exquisite works were ranked high
among men and achievements of the times, sung and celebrated by
musicians and court poets, even by kings themselves. It was in these
halcyon days of the art that Theodorus engraved the signet ring of
Polycrates ; that Mithridates founded the first royal cabinet of gems ;
that Alexander the Great would allow no artist but Pyrogoteles to
engrave his royal countenance, and that only on an emerald. It
was under this monarch, indeed, that the Hellenic glyptic art
reached its climax, and was able to sustain itself, by more or less
transplantation to Rome, on a high plane of excellence till the fall of
the Caesars.
During the Middle Ages the absorption in gems of all kinds prevailed
to such an extent as to border on fanaticism. From the
lordly diamond down to the humble agate, each possessed some
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