The Gonzaga Cameo - Arsinoe II & Ptolemy II Egypt 3rd century BC sardonyx Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
Intaglio - Busts of Three Men Eastern Mediterranean 4th century AD carnelian Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
Cameo - Diomedes stealing the Palladium Roman Empire 1st century BC - 1st century AD onyx Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
"Miraculous guardian statues were common in ancient cities, but none was more famous than the Trojan Palladium, a small wooden image of armed Athena. It fell from the sky, and the safety of Troy depended on its possession. Odysseus and Diomedes carried it away, thus enabling the sack of Troy. But in the canonical Roman tradition it was Aeneas who rescued the Palladium and brought it to Lavinium, whence it ultimately reached Rome. Ovid adduces both legends, but others tried to reconcile them: the image robbed by the Greeks was only a copy, or: Diomedes came to Italy and returned the Palladium to Aeneas. Also, other cities claimed the Trojan Palladium: Athens, Argos, Sparta, and in Italy Heraclea, Luceria, Siris, and Lavinium. In Rome it was kept as a pledge of Rome's fate in the innermost part of Vesta's temple, where only the chief vestal could enter; when in 241 BC the temple burnt, the pontifex maximus L. Caecilius Metellus saved the Palladium, but (so some authorities) lost his sight. It was still there in AD 191."
– Oxford Classical Dictionary, 3rd edition (1996) edited by Simon Hornblower and Antony Spawforth
Intaglio - Diomedes stealing the Palladium Italy ca. 1700-1730 rock crystal Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
Cameo - Leda and the Swan Italy ca. 1825 onyx Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
Cameo - Venus and the Eagle Egypt 1st century BC sardonyx Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
Cameo - Portrait of Couple Italy ca. 1580-1620 onyx Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
Cameo - Mask of Satyr Italy ca. 1580-1620 onyx Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
Cameo - Fish and Shrimp Roman Empire 1st century AD sardonyx Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
Intaglio - Nero as Helios Roman Empire 1st century AD rock crystal Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
Intaglio - The Nymph Galene Greece 3rd century BC aquamarine Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
Cameo - the Nymph Hippa with rhyton Italy ca. 1600-1650 sardonyx Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
Cameo - Two Swans Europe undated agate Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
Cameo - Diana and Actaeon Italy ca. 1550-1600 agate Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |