Part 5

What patience it must have required to cut those ornaments in Jade which we find on their scepters and on the handles of their official swords! Many pieces which are shown in museums have cost years of laborious engraving. Jade has therefore been esteemed by the Chinese as emblematic of all virtue.

In this connection it may be remarked that the Burmese and the Siamese have seldom engraved on any stones harder than Alabaster or Agalmatolite (Chinese figure stone). Their subjects principally represent Buddha; occasionally his two feet; their emblematic flowers, and their deeply-revered sacred Bôdhi-tree at Gaya.

SOMMERVILLE COLLECTION.

AZTEC.

AZTEC OR MEXICAN.

The American Continent has contributed some unique work executed by the Aztecs anterior to the Spanish conquest of Mexico.

Among the existing glyptic relics of nations we find no examples of execution in stone-engraving more peculiar than what has been preserved of the work of the Aztecs or Mexicans, especially that done before the occupation by Pizarro.

The character of their work is so crude and distinct that no close observer can for a moment be mistaken in detecting its origin.

I have met with Aztec engraved stones among a miscellaneous collection offered to me for selection; there was that quality which enables a connoisseur to recognize the class of ornamentation doubtless worn by that people whom Prescott represented as decorated principally by gold, silver, and feathers.

Large pieces, cameos of two and a half to three inches, have been found which were worn by the Incas as breast ornaments, and are always pierced, which shows that they were suspended from the neck.

In fact, some of the most faithful representations of costume, head-dress, and weapons are in _basso-rilievo_ engraved stones in opaque white Alabaster and pale-green hard Nephrite.

RETROSPECTIVE.

We have much to enjoy as we survey the gems of the various epochs. The multifarious types that have been gathered in forty centuries meet our view, grouped in the tableau of engraved gems.

Our attention is drawn with interest to each sentiment expressed, feature defined, or emotion portrayed. We study the diversified qualities--the fineness or freedom of touch, ingenious effects, delicate lines, choice attitudes, graceful forms, force, spirit, and tenderness--which characterize these monuments of patience.

The engraved gems rescued from the torrent, ebbing and flowing with the fluctuating fortunes of ages, garnered by successive generations, enrich the traditional viaduct traversing the morass of many centuries. Some blocks are less beautiful than others in the structure, but from them we have founded our first footholds, and from them we mount to the work that embellishes the great Etruscan arches even when we revel on the finely pencilled coping-stones of the Greek and Roman epochs, or admire the ornate abutments of the Renaissance, we should revert with pleasure to the earlier, ruder contributions in the foundations, and we can find pleasure in viewing and studying every part.

The builder’s stones are graven--the footway is of pictured pebbles, miniatures, amulets, and seals, reflecting lineaments and traces of the history of entombed generations. Their inscriptions reveal to us the impress of ancient, mediæval, and modern art.

INDEX.

Abraxas or Gnostics, 58-62, 102 Talismans, 58, 102

Agalmatolite, 123

Amethyst, 123

Amulets, 112

Animals and Birds, 112-115

Ant, the, as a talisman, the most minute, 113

Antique Pastes, 116-120

Apollo, 66

Aringa, the, a fish of the Adriatic Sea, 113

Ashurna Sirbal, King of Assyria, palace of, 22

Asshur (Assyrian), Supreme God, 32

Assyrian Records, 39

Astarte, 66

Aztec or Mexican, 127-128

Bacchus and Ariadne, 89-90

Basilidians, 62

Beltis Mylitta (Assyrian), the Great Mother, 32

Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, 72

Bôdhi-tree at Gaya, 124

British Museum, London, 72, 119

Buddha, 124

Byzantine, 68-75 Period, 11

Cameos, 55, 68, 72, 87, 89, 90, 94, 104, 112, 116, 119, 127 Historical, 55, 104 Religious, 11

Catharine II., Empress of Russia, 87, 94

Charles V., Emperor, 86

Chinese, Burmese, and Siamese, 123-124 Figure-stone, 124

Christ, Century of, 11 Heads of, 75

Cleopatra, beautiful Turquoise Cameo, 108

Commodus, 90

Constantine, Emperor, 68, 71, 94, 104 Baptism of, 72 Conversion of, 72

Coriolanus, interesting Historic Cameo, 104

Crispus, Son of Constantine, 97

Cylinders, Babylonian, 14, 25 Brazil, 32 Chaldean, over 4000 years old, 25 Found in ruins of Um Kir, 35 Nineveh, 32 Oldest form of Seals, 25 Persian, 12 South American Indians, 32

Cypselus, box of, 48

Decebalus, plot of, 111

De Witte, Baron J., 93

Dioscorides, 87

Dolphin, a, the Mariner’s Friend, 113

Duaoumautew, 19

Duke of Devonshire, 88 of Marlborough, 88 of Orleans, 87

Early Christians, 65-67 Gems of, 65

Egypt, 16-21 Temples of, 12

Egyptians, 39 Records, 39

Emperor Caracalla, 13 Constantine, 13, 68, 71, 72, 94, 104 Tiberius, 13

England, 86

Engraved Gems for Ornamentation, 85 Quality of Execution, 11, 13 Pietradura, 65, 119

Etruscans--Etruria, the, 36-40 Country of Ancient, 36 Inscriptions, 39 Tombs of, 36

Farnese Family, 84

Fausta, Wife of Constantine, 68, 97

Faustina, 13

Feuardent, M., Paris, 93

Frog, the, 114

Gazette Archæologique, Paris, 93

Gem-cutting, earliest mention of, 98

George III., King of England, 87

Giovanni Pickler, works of, 87

Glyptology, 14

Græco-Roman, 52, 56, 90

Greece, 44-52

Helena, Mother of Constantine, 68, 97

Hilprecht, Prof. H. V., 22

Historic Cameos, 55, 104-111

Holy Family, token Cameos and Intaglios of, 68

Horatius defending the Bridge, 108

Imperial Collection, St. Petersburg, 72

Incas, Breast Ornaments, 127

Incisori, 51, 66, 71, 72, 102

Intaglios, 32, 44, 48, 52, 55, 68, 72, 77, 87, 100, 112, 116, 119

Jade, Chinese, 123

Jewish Prisoners, 111

Josephine, Empress of France, 87

Jupiter Ægiochus, 90, 91 the Eagle of, Amulet, 113

King, Prof. C. W., 94

Lenormant, Francois, 26, 93

Longperier, M. Adrien, 93

Mamæa, Julia, Mother of Alexander Severus, 119

Marchand, works of, 87

Marcius, Original Name of Coriolanus, 104

Marcus Aurelius, 90, 107

Mediæval, 76-79

Medici Family, 80, 84 Lorenzo de, 84

Mercury, 66

Message-bearing Stones, 88

Middle Ages (Night of Art), 76

Minerva, 114

Minos, King of Crete, 89

Minotaur, at Crete, 90

Monks, work of, 77

Museum, British, 72, 119 of the Hermitage, St. Petersburg, 94 of the Louvre, Paris, 93 University of Pennsylvania, 16, 22, 89

Mycenæ, 51

Mythological, 121-122

Nacre, 123

Natter, works of, 87

Naxos (Dia), Island of, 89, 90

Nephrite, 128

Night of Art, 12, 76, 79

Northwick Collection, England, 93

Osiris, Colossal Stone Figure, 16

Owl, the, 114

Parrot, the, Attendant on Bacchus, 113

Parsees, 101

Peacock, the, Favorite of Juno, 113

Persia, 102 and Babylon, 22-35

Phœnicia, 43-47 Cylinders, 43 Scarabeus, 43

Pistrucci, works of, 87

Pizarro, 127

Pope Leo X., 84 Paul III., 84

Portland, Duchess of, 119 Vase, 119

Prescott, 127

Prince Frederick of Prussia, 87

Publius Lentullus, 66

Rameses, Colossal Stone Figure, 16

Raven, the, Friend of Apollo, 113

Rawlinson, Sir Henry, 35

Religious Stone Literature, 99 Tokens, 61, 65, 100

Renaissance, 80-85 Cradle of the, 84 Oratorio of the, 83

Retrospective, 129, 130

Roman, 55-57 Empire in Byzantia, 94 Gem Engraving, 55

Royal Collection, Vienna, 72

Salle des Pierres Gravées, Paris, 93

Santarelli, works of, 87

Sapor I., King of Sassanians, 22, 25

Sardinia, originally Sandaleotis, 44

Sassanians, 75

Scarabeus, Egyptian, 20 Etruscan, 36 Funereal, 16, 19, 20, 21 Phœnician, 44, 47

Scorpion, a, 113

Scriptural Cameos, 72

Seals, Assyrian, 26, 31, 32 Persian, 12, 31 Phœnician, 44 Religious, 100 Sassanian, 31 Serapis, 66

Severus, Alexander, Emperor, 119

Signets of Kings, 25

Silenus and Bacchus, 78

Sirletti, works of, 87

Stone Fetiches, 58

Storks, 114

Succeeding Declines and Revivals, 86-88

Talismans, Abraxas, 58, 62

Tesseræ, 65

Tharros, 47

Theseus, 89

Thotmes, Colossal Stone Figure, 16

Titus Vespasianus, 104, 111

Trajan, 104, 108

Triumph of Constantine, 94-97

Um-Kir, Ruins of, 35

Unique Gems, 72 Work of the Aztecs, 127

Venus, 66

Veturia, Mother of Coriolanus, 104

Volscians, 104

Volumnia, Wife of Coriolanus, 104

Zulian Cameo, 93

[Transcriber’s Note:

List of Illustrations entry: Greek and Roman Intaglio Rings Page 49 corrected to Page 50.

Obvious printer errors corrected silently.

Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation are as in the original.]