The subject of artists' names on gems unavoidably recals to one's mind the Poniatowsky Collection, where each stone bears engraved upon it the name of some celebrated artist of antiquity-Pyrgoteles, Dioscorides, Cronius, Solon, Aulus, Admon, Gaius, &c. These gems are of large dimensions, often of fine quality, and engraved with mythological subjects, for the most part executed with much taste, but frequently also displaying a good deal of the flighty Berninesque manner of the last century in the attitudes of the figures and in the treatment of the drapery. The heads and the single figures are by far the most pleasing in the series, and approach the nearest to the true antique. These gems were all executed for Prince Poniatowsky (d. at Florence, 1833) by the best Roman artists of the past age, Cerbara, Girometti, Pichler, &c., and the inscriptions, which are masterpieces in this very difficult branch of the art, are from the hand of Dies, who took upon himself this department alone. Had these clever engravers put their own names upon their productions, instead of forging those of ancient artists, these masterpieces of their skill would have increased in value with every passing century: whereas at present, they are looked upon as worthless, are sold for every curi merely the value of their gold mountings to those persons who understand gems, and fill the show-cases of osity dealer in London, who often succeed in passing them off upon "country collectors" as the genuine works of the artists whose names they bear. As a proof of the little value in which they are now held, I may state that, at the sale of Lord Monson's Collection, consisting of 154 of the best of these gems, they went at prices ranging from 258. to 30s. each, though many of them were cut on the finest Amethysts and Sards and mounted in elaborate gold frames of very elegant designs. Knowing all this, we cannot but be amused at the blind faith of the person who last year (1858) took the trouble to publish an elaborate and expensive account of these all but worthless forgeries, illustrated with admirably-executed photographs of the most curious, and this evidently under the full conviction, as appears from his preface, that they are all the genuine productions of those celebrated ancients whose names appear so conspicuously upon them. How the Prince himself could have conceived so absurd an idea as the formation of this series, and have wasted so large a sum in the carrying out of his ridiculous project, is very difficult to imagine, since he had inherited from his uncle, the last king of Poland, Stanislaus, a splendid cabinet of true antique gems, the possession of which ought to have inspired him with better taste." The gem of the original collection was the famous Helmet, which merits a detailed description, both on account of its extraordinary beauty, and from its having fetched at its last sale, February, 1859, the largest sum (897.) ever obtained for an intaglio at a London auction, though it is said that Herz had refused an offer for it of 150l. from the Duc de Blacas. The stone, a Sardonyx of considerable size, 1 by inch, is of most singular quality : the upper layer being an opaque red Jasper; the under, a transparent greenish Calcedony or Plasma. The intaglio, deeply cut, is a Greek helmet, with flowing crest of horsehair; but the crown is unusually spherical. This is ornamented with This original cabinet numbered, when catalogued by Visconti, no more than 154 gems, including a few splendid camei. The intagli were all of the finest character. Amongst them was the masterpiece of Dioscorides, the bust of Io, a three-quarter face, with small budding horns on the temples, and very deeply cut in a most splendid Sard; the eagle's head, inscribed мIO, and hence ascribed to the collection of King Mithridates; the antique paste, a portrait of Nicomedes IV., with the name of the artist Pergamus; and the famous helmet described below in detail. This last, I am informed, is of larger dimensions than that of Stosch on the same peculiar Jasper-plasma, now in the Berlin Cabinet, as well as somewhat more elaborate in the ornamentation. It was the Prince, the last possessor, who, by adding to these genuine treasures so many absurd forgeries, brought it up to the vast number of 3000 in all; and thereby so discredited the whole cabinet that, when it was brought to the hammer in London, about thirty years ago, even the established reputation of the Io was not proof against the suspicion excited by the bad company amongst which she appeared, so that this matchless gem was actually knocked down for 17., the figure of Bellerophon on Pegasus, attended by his dog, and spearing the Chimera represented on the cheek-piece beneath: all, though on so minute a scale, miracles of art, both in design and execution. The flowing crest of horse-hair is carefully and naturally rendered by means of the diamond-point alone. Winckelman describes one of Stosch's gems, almost identical with this, both as to the nature of the stone and of the subject engraved on it. This peculiar variety of Sardonyx seems to have been a favourite of the ancient engravers for such re presentations, for the Herz Collection also boasted another gem of the same curions material, but engraved with a tall Corinthian crater; its surface decorated with Bacchic subjects, almost equal in finish and delicacy to the work of this helmet. Curiously enough Winckelman remarks that the helmets and vases of this description, executed in imitation of Corinthian bronze-work, occurring in the Stosch Collection, are all very highly and carefully finished, and to be numbered amongst the choicest treasures therein preserved. although in the previous century it would have commanded, if sold singly, fully 10007.,—a sum paid for other works made valuable by the artists' names, yet falling far short of this both in artistic and historical value. The only gem-engravers mentioned by name in Pliny's account of the art are Pyrgoteles, Apollonides, Cronius, and Dioscorides: nor doa ny others, to my knowledge, occur in any ancient author. But their own works have preserved to us a somewhat copious list of names, which, together with the subjects they accompany, will be found annexed to this article. An early and therefore interesting notice of the first artists of the Renaissance is given by Camillo Leonardo, in the year 1502, and therefore but a short time after the art had been revived in Italy. Nevertheless, he speaks of their works as already diffused over the whole of that country, and not to be distinguished from the antique; and affirms that the following gem-engravers, his contemporaries, were equal in merit to any of ancient times:-in Rome, Giovanni Maria da Mantova; at Venice, Francesco Nichini da Ferrara; at Genova, Jacopo Tagliacarne; at Milan, Leonardo da Milano; "Who sink figures in gems with such accuracy and neatness that nothing can be added or taken away therefrom." He adds that an art then flourished, altogether unknown to the ancients, that of Niello in silver, in which he praises as a most distinguished worker Giovanni, surnamed Frazza, of Bologna. Vasari, writing in 1550, himself the contemporary of all the best artists of the Cinque-Cento period, names with commendation Giovanni del Castel Bolognese, who cut intagli in rock-crystal, especially a Tityus and a Ganymede, for the Cardinal Ippolito dei Medici. Valerio Belli, Il Vicentino, was a famous engraver, as was also his daughter: he died in 1546, and therefore could not have executed the portraits of Queen Elizabeth (1558) so often ascribed to him. Luigi Anichini of Ferrara was distinguished for the fine engraving and exquisite finish of his intagli. Alessandro Cesati, Il Greco, "surpassed all his age in the drawing, gracefulness, and excellence of his works, and left behind him camei and intagli of the greatest merit and diversity." In the Pulsky Collection is a spirited portrait of Pope Paul III., ascribed to this artist, and cut on a large and beautiful Sapphire, a most admirable specimen of his skill. It has been asserted with some plausibility that certain supposed antiques, inscribed KOINTOE AAEƐA, are in reality works of this artist. That the dies for the coinage of the Greeks and Romans were cut by the artists who also engraved the gems of the same period is evident from the identity of treatment of the heads and subjects occurring in each of these classes. Some singular instances in confirmation of this opinion have come under my notice. Thus, a Sard surrounded with an Etruscan border, bears engraved upon it a cow looking backwards, precisely similar to the curious representation of the same 8 These are usually the works of Coldoré, the protégé of Henri IV. |
