changed names, continued to attract the devout to their temples as before. The common type of a Muse holding a mask, did duty for Herodias with the Baptist's head in her

hand; and St. John the Evangelist was represented by the figure of Jupiter with the eagle at his feet. Silenus with his crooked stick was appropriately transformed into some croziered abbot; whilst cupids made very orthodox angels. The bust of Serapis passed always for the portrait of Christ; and every one who has paid any attention to the representations of this mysterious divinity, characterised as they are by a grave and pensive expression, so different to the open and genial air of the Greek and Roman Jupiter, will feel convinced that the countenance of Serapis, and not the pretended letter of Rufus to Tiberius, supplied the original type for the portraits of our Lord. The description of the Alexandrians, given by Hadrian in his letter to Servianus (Vopiscus in Vita Saturnini), seems to tend to an elucidation of the origin of this interchange of representations between the old and new Faith. "Those who worship Serapis are also Christians, and those who style themselves the bishops of Christ are devoted to Serapis. The very Patriarch himself, when he comes to Egypt, is forced by some to adore Serapis, by others to adore Christ. There is but one God for them all,-him do the Christians, him do the Jews, him do all the Gentiles also worship." The Jewish prejudices entertained by the early Christians were so powerful, that such portraits were not

admitted into their churches until a very late period; and any traditional description of Christ's personal appearance must in a generation or two have become much too vague to serve as any guide to an artist.3 Sacred plate of the Middle Ages was enriched with swarms of intagli, a practice common enough long before under the Empire, for Juvenal laughs at the person who transferred the gems from his rings to the exterior of his drinking vessels:

"Nam Virro ut multi gemmas ad pocula transfert

A digitis."

4

Caylus gives figures of several of the greatest merit, both camei and intagli, selected from nearly three hundred, at that time (1760) preserved set in the sacred vessels and orna-. ments belonging to the sacristy of Troyes Cathedral. The shrine of the Three Kings of Cologne, a work of the eleventh century, has some admirable camei set in its two ends, and its sides are studded with engraved gems of all sorts. For the subject of one of them (a Leda and Swan) the devotees of the period must have been puzzled to find a scriptural parallel. But it is needless to particularise these works, as every collection of documents of the Middle Ages will display, in their seals attached, abundant evidence of the universality of the custom. The parchments preserved in the muniment room of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, have a great number of impressions from antique intagli set in the personal seals of the donors and attestors of the various

3 Epiphanius (Hares. xxvii.) brings it as a grave charge against the Carpocratians, "that they had painted portraits, and even gold and silver images, and of other materials, which they affirmed to be portraits of Jesus, and made by Pilate after the likeness of Christ at what time he sojourned amongst men. These they keep in secret along with others of Pythagoras, Plato, and Aristotle, and

setting them up all together, worship and do sacrifice unto them after the gentile fashion."

4 The greatest part of these gems were small intagli on Carnelian, and set in a chasse containing a tooth of St. Peter, and the head of St. Philip, made by order of Bishop Garnier, Almoner to the Crusaders at the taking of Constantinople, whence he stole the skull of the Apostle.

deeds; amongst which, however, very few occur of any merit as to workmanship, being generally of late Roman date. I have seen a small rude intaglio of Pax, surrounded by a mediæval legend RICHARDVS ESP, which had been regarded by the German antiquaries, in which country it had been found (at Ratisbon), as an invaluable relic, being the very signet of Richard Coeur de Lion!

Lapidaria or Treatises on Gems still exist, describing the benefits that accrue from the possession of stones sculptured with certain figures. Their virtues are deduced from the meaning supposed by the authors of these treatises to be implied by the engraving on the gem; and both grounds and inferences are, it is needless to say, in most cases ridiculously absurd. The mode in which they express themselves on this point would lead one to conclude that they considered the stone and figure to be a natural production, and not a work of art; an idea the more admissible if we reflect upon the great length of time during which the art of gem-engraving had been totally unknown in Europe. The last intaglio known, of any merit as a work of art, is the famous Sapphire of Constantius, in which that emperor is represented spearing a wild boar in the neighbourhood of Cæsarea, that city being typified by a female reclining on the ground. The rude works of the Gnostics may have been executed for a century or two longer, for the tomb of Maria, wife of Honorius was found, when opened, to contain several, buried with that princess as amulets, in spite of her orthodoxy; with the notion no doubt that they could do the deceased no harm, and might possibly be of service to her in her passage to the next world, as we shall see when we come to treat of the class of Abraxas gems, a barbarous but highly interesting series of intagli. We have already noticed the signet of Mauricius, who reigned 582 to 602, but I cannot vouch for the genuineness of the stone, for it has much the air of a work of the Renaissance.

I have, however, met with an account of a most interesting intaglio, the authenticity of which is indubitable, and which brings down the traces of the existence of the art of engraving on gems some centuries lower than is generally allowed; to the examination of which the next article shall be devoted.

CROSS OF KING LOTHARIUS.

This cross, itself indubitably a work of the Carlovingian period, but mounted upon a silver-gilt foot of very elegant design in the taste of the fifteenth century, is preserved in the treasury of the cathedral of Aix-la-Chapelle, and affords some singular illustrations of certain points already treated of in these pages. The surface of the gold is ornamented with arabesque tracery, and studded thickly with gems set close together in plain raised collets. These consist of Pearls, Rubies, Sapphires, Amethysts (one an intaglio of the Three Graces), and Emeralds; another convincing proof, if any were needed, of the common use of the last gem in ancient times. At the intersection of the arms of the cross is placed a magnificent cameo on Onyx, about 3 inches high and 24 wide, representing the laureated bust of Augustus holding an eagle-topped sceptre; a work of the highest merit. But the most interesting feature that presents itself to our notice in this early relic of the first dawn of medieval art, is the signet of Lotharius himself, set in the lower part of the stem of the cross, immediately beneath the cameo of Augustus. It is engraved on a large oval piece of rock crystal about 13 inches. high by 14 wide, and represents the bust of that king, his head covered with a close-fitting helmet with a slightly projecting frontlet, like those of the latest Roman period. Around the bust runs this legend, in well formed Roman letters,

+XPEADIVVAHLOTHARIVMREG

"O Christ, defend King Lothaire."

X

The execution of the engraving is very tolerable; far better than could have been expected at that date, A.D. 823, especially when we consider the rudeness of the coinage of the same period. It is not the work of the Byzantine school, for the characters of the legend bear no resemblance to those employed by its artists, but are precisely the same as those seen on the Frankish stone and metal work of the time of this monarch. This is by far the latest intaglio of ascertained date, of which I have been able to find any trace; and its existence supports the opinion previously expressed, that the art of engraving gems lingered in Europe to a much later period than is generally supposed.

This most splendid specimen of ancient jeweller's work is admirably figured in the magnificent Mélanges d'Archæologie,' Vol. I., par MM. Cahier et Martin.

PROFUSION OF JEWELLERY WORN BY ROMAN

LADIES.

"I have seen," says Pliny, ix. 58, "Lollia Paulina (once the wife of the Emperor Caligula)-though it was on no great occasion, nor was she in full dress of ceremony, but merely at an ordinary wedding party-I have seen her covered all over with Emeralds and Pearls shining in alternate rows, over all her head, her hair, hair-fillet, ears, neck, necklace, and fingers; the value of all which united amounted to the sum of forty millions of sesterces (400,0007.): a value which she was ready to attest by the vouchers for the prices paid. Nor were these jewels the presents of an extravagant prince ;-they were, on the contrary, family heir-looms, that is to say, bought with the spoils of provinces. This was the result of peculation,—this the end for which M. Lollius made himself infamous all over the East, by taking bribes from princes; and at the last drunk poison when C. Cæsar, the adopted son of Augustus,