Showing posts with label gems. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gems. Show all posts

Thursday, October 10, 2019

Ancient Egyptian, Greek and Modern Curiosities (Vienna)

Ancient Egypt
Standing Figure of the Court Official Snofru-nefer
2400 BC
limestone statue (half life-size)
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ancient Egypt
Stele
1850 BC
incised and painted limestone
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ancient Egypt
Triad of Memphis
(Ptah, Sachmet and Nefertem)
640-610 BC
faience
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Roman Egypt
Sarcophagus Fragment
AD 130-150
painted stucco and glass
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Roman Egypt
Mummy Portrait of a Woman
AD 161-192
encaustic on wood
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ancient Greek Culture on Cyprus
Votive Statue of a Man
550-525 BC
limestone
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ancient Greek Culture in South Italy
Hydria
(Return of Hephaestus to Olympus)
525 BC
painted terracotta
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Hephaestus Alone

His heart is like a boat that sets forth alone
on the ocean and goes far out from him,
as Aphrodite proceeds on her pleasure journeys.
He pours the gold down the runnels
into a great mystery under the sand.
When he pulls it up by the feet
and knocks off the scale, it is a god.
What is it she finds with those men
that equals this dark birthing? The deities
remain invisible in their pretty gardens
of grass and violets, of daffodils and jasmine.
Even his wife lives like that. Going on yachts,
speaking to the captains in the familiar.
Let them have it, the noons and rain and joy.
He makes a world here out of frog songs
and packed earth. He made his wife
so she contains the green-fleshed
melons of Lindos, thalo blue of the sea,
and one ripe peach at five in the morning.
He fashioned her by the rules, with love,
made her with rage and disillusion.

– Linda Gregg (1942-2019)

Ancient Greece
Signet Ring
(Aphrodite and Eros)
4th-3rd century BC
gold
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ancient Greece
Grave Stele of Parmeniskos 
200 BC (Hellenistic)
limestone
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ancient Greece
Head of Serapis
2nd century BC (Hellenistic)
sard intaglio
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Anonymous European Maker
Head of Young Hercules
18th century
carnelian intaglio
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Anonymous European Maker
Apollo Kitharoedus
ca. 1700-1750
sard intaglio
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Anonymous European Maker
Specimen mounted to resemble Trees
16th century
coral
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Anonymous Italian Maker
Adoration of the Shepherds
ca. 1650
oil on alabaster in gold and silver frame
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Friday, October 4, 2019

Modern French and Italian Cameos (in Vienna)

Anonymous Maker working in France
Leda and the Swan
ca. 1550
cameo in opal, gold and enamel
with enameled-gold mount set with rubies and diamonds
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Anonymous Maker working in France
Hercules and King Busiris
ca. 1550
shell cameo with enameled-gold mount
set with rubies and diamonds
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

BUSIRIS – In a Greek legend preserved in a fragment of Pherecydes, an Egyptian king, son of Poseidon and Lyssianassa.  After Egypt has been afflicted for nine years with famine, Phrasius, a seer of Cyprus, arrived in Egypt and announced that the cessation of the famine would not take place until a foreigner was yearly sacrificed to Zeus or Jupiter.  Busiris commenced by sacrificing the prophet, and continued the custom by offering a foreigner on the altar of the god.  It is here that Busiris enters into the circle of the myths and parerga of Heracles, who had arrived in Egypt from Libya, and was seized and bound ready to be killed and offered at the altar of Zeus in Memphis.  Heracles burst the bonds which bound him, and, seizing his club, slew Busiris with his son Amphidamas and his herald Chalbes.  The episode if often represented on vase paintings from the 6th century BC and onwards.

– Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th edition (1910-11) 

Anonymous Maker working in France
Armoured Warrior
ca. 1550-1600
agate cameo with enameled-gold mount
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Anonymous Maker working in France
Hercules and Omphale
ca. 1575-1600
onyx cameo with enameled-gold mount
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Anonymous Maker working in France
Attila
ca. 1550-1600
onyx cameo with silver-gilt mount
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Anonymous Maker working in Italy
Abundantia
ca. 1550
onyx cameo with enameled-gold mount
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Anonymous Maker working in Italy
Judgment of Paris
ca. 1550
chalcedony cameo with enameled-gold mount
set with rubies
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Anonymous Maker working in Italy
Juno, Venus and Minerva
ca. 1550-1600
chalcedony cameo with enameled-gold mount
set with rubies and diamonds
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Anonymous Maker working in Italy
Jupiter driving a Four-Horse Chariot
ca. 1550
onyx cameo with enameled-gold mount
set with diamonds
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Anonymous Maker working in Italy
Marine Venus
ca. 1550
chalcedony cameo with enameled-gold mount
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Anonymous Maker working in Italy
Meleager and Atalanta
ca. 1540
chalcedony cameo with enameled-gold mount
set with diamonds
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Anonymous Maker working in Italy
Murder of Aegisthus and Clytemnestra by Orestes
ca. 1450-1500
onyx cameo with enameled-gold mount
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

AEGISTHUS – In Greek legend, Aegisthus was the son of Thyestes by his own daughter Pelopia.  Having been exposed by his mother to conceal her shame, he was found by shepherds and suckled by a goat – whence his name.  His uncle Atreus, who had married Pelopia, took him to Mycenae, until they were deposed by Agamemnon on his return from exile.  After the departure of Agamemnon to the Trojan war, Aegisthus seduced his wife Clytemnestra, and with her assistance slew Agamemnon on his return.  Eight years later this murder was avenged by Agamemnon's son, Orestes.

– Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th edition (1910-11) 

Anonymous Maker working in Italy
Poseidon and Athena
disputing sovereignty over the city of Athens
ca. 1250-1300
onyx cameo with enameled-gold mount
set with rubies and diamonds
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Anonymous Maker working in Italy
The Laocoön
ca. 1535-65
chalcedony cameo with gold mount
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Anonymous Maker working in Italy
Venus and Cupid
ca. 1550-75
chalcedony cameo with enameled-gold mount
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Modern Italian Cameos (in Vienna) by Known Artists

Benedetto Pistrucci
River God - The Nile
ca. 1838
onyx cameo with gold mount
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Benedetto Pistrucci
Phaedra and Hippolytus
before 1855
chalcedony cameo with gold mount
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Giovanni Battista Cerbara or Giuseppe Cerbara
Hercules
ca. 1800
onyx cameo with gold mount
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Giovanni Battista Cerbara or Giuseppe Cerbara
Alexander the Great
ca. 1800
agate cameo with gold mount
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Giovanni Antonio Santarelli
Death of Eurydice
ca. 1790-1800
onyx cameo with gold mount
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

On Chloris Walking in the Snow

I saw fair Chloris walk alone,
Whilst feathered rain came softly down,
And Jove descended from his tower
To court her in a silver shower.
The wanton snow flew on her breast
Like little birds unto their nest;
But overcome with whiteness there,
For grief it thawed into a tear;
Thence falling on her garment's hem,
To deck her, froze into a gem.

– William Strode (1632)

Gaspare Capparoni
Zeus as Eagle drinking from Cup held by Hebe
ca. 1775-1800
onyx cameo with gold mount
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Antonio Pazzaglia
Alexander the Great
ca. 1790-1800
onyx cameo mounted on gold finger-ring
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Alessandro Masnago
The Burning of Troy
ca. 1600-1620
jasper cameo with silver-gilt mount
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Alessandro Masnago
Lucretia
ca. 1590-1600
agate cameo with enameled-gold mount
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Alessandro Masnago
Steer attacked by Lions
ca. 1590-1600
agate cameo with silver-gilt mount
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Alessandro Masnago
Atalanta and Hippomenes
ca. 1600-1605
jasper cameo with enameled-gold mount
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Francesco Tortorino
Marcus Curtius leaping into the Chasm
ca. 1560
chalcedony cameo with enameled-gold mount
set with rubies and diamonds
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Giovanni Bernardi
Mars and Venus with Cupid
ca. 1550
onyx cameo with enameled-gold mount
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Giovanni Bernardi
Bull Baiting
ca. 1540
chalcedony cameo with enameled-gold mount
set with diamonds
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Thursday, October 3, 2019

Carved Gems from Ancient Rome, now in Vienna

Ancient Rome
Augustus drawn in Chariot by Tritons
27 BC
sardonyx cameo
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ancient Rome
Gemma Augustea
(Augustus enthroned, Tiberius at left descending from chariot)
AD 9-12
onyx cameo
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ancient Rome
Caligula with Roma
AD 38-41
sardonyx cameo
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ancient Rome
Imperial Eagle
AD 54
sardonyx cameo
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

The Eagle

He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands
Ring'd with the azure world, he stands.

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls
And like a thunderbolt he falls.

– Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1851)

Ancient Rome
Figure of Victory driving a Chariot
ca. 25 BC - AD 25
onyx cameo
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ancient Rome
Centaur
1st century AD
onyx cameo
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ancient Rome
Two-sided Gem with the Dioscuri
3rd century BC
jacinth intaglio
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ancient Rome
Actaeon attacked by his Dogs
ca. 50-25 BC
sard intaglio
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ancient Rome
Hercules with Cupid
ca. 50-25 BC
carnelian intaglio
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ancient Rome
Harpocrates (God of Silence)
2nd-1st century BC
emerald cameo
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ancient Rome
Venus with Dead Adonis
ca. 50-25 BC
sardonyx cameo
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ancient Rome
Masked Comic Actor
1st century AD
onyx cameo
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ancient Rome
Serpent-Legged Giant
ca, 50-25 BC
carnelian intaglio
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ancient Rome
Fleeing Woman
1st century BC
onyx cameo
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna