Maxwell Sommerville

The earliest specimens of Greek gems bore traces of Egyptian style; they represented objects rather symbolically than by artistic delineation of the beautiful in the human form or in nature. On the box of Cypselus death was represented with crooked legs, beauty and youth by long tresses of hair, power by long hands, swiftness and agility by long feet. Many of the oldest Greek statues were accompanied with the names of the subjects represented, which seems to imply that the artist was conscious of his deficiency, both in character and expression. Yet in time they created single figures and groups in fair marble, whose symmetry and exquisite modelling of the human form command the admiration of all. They are either at rest or displaying the muscles, sinews, and even the passions of athletic men and adorable women.

Greece was the source of the finest and richest glyptic art-treasures in a decorative sense. Grecian intaglios are of superb execution, of exquisite fineness and finish. This superiority can in a measure be accounted for by the encouragement the profession received from the nation, both from rulers and from the people.

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, by their Oriental style, prove that the ancient Greeks, who bequeathed so much to their successors, also inherited art-models from a people 1000 years B. 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.