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| Greek intaglio Female Portrait Head 2nd century BC chalcedony Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Greek intaglio Female Portrait Head 3rd century BC carnelian Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Greek intaglio Head of Medusa 1st-3rd century BC carnelian Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
"What occasioned Lorenzo de' Medici's zeal for collecting gems and hardstones? It was more than just a collector's obsession to own more and better examples than his rivals such as Cardinal Francesco Gonzaga, from whom he purchased a number of pieces. The prestige of owning such pieces shone through the negative descriptions of Pliny, who recorded several notable donations of gems. As Pliny recounted, Pompey was the first to dedicate in the Capitol a ring cabinet that had belonged to King Mithridates. Julius Caesar soon followed suit by consecrating six cabinets of jewels in the Temple of Venus Genetrix, and Octavia's son Marcellus offered one cabinet in the Temple of Apollo on the Palatine. As noted before Pliny's attitude toward putting such a valuation on gems was markedly disapproving, even though he devoted an entire book of the Natural History to the properties and mining of a long list of gems. He worried that the lust for them was exhausting nature's resources and excoriated Pompey, whom he considered the originator of this perverse taste. . . . This fascination with collecting gems in the ancient world encompassed their beauty and intrinsic value, qualities equally admired by Lorenzo and other Renaissance collectors. The materials of gems and hardstone vessels produced magnificent colors and beautiful plays of light. If they were carved or engraved like the Tazza Farnese, as Pliny preferred because it showed an appreciation of human skill, then those skills could be much admired, as both gems and hardstones were more difficult to carve than the softer material of marble. Their hardness meant that they were more likely to preserve the emblematic or narrative compositions than sarcophagus reliefs or reliefs on public monuments like triumphal arches, which were usually damaged. They offered a miniature version in sculpted relief of types of subject matter that had not survived in painting. . . . Furthermore, as Lorenzo knew from Pliny's tale of Mithridates and Pompey – and from more recent history – gems could provide ready cash and were easily hidden and carried away in times of danger."
– Sarah Black McHam, from Pliny and the Artistic Culture of the Italian Renaissance (Yale University Press, 2013)
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| Greek cameo Alexander the Great 4th century BC turquoise set in Italian gold ring ca. 1550 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Roman intaglio Head of Sleeping Medusa 1st century BC - 3rd century AD peridot Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Roman intaglio Bust Portrait of Julia Domna AD 200-210 beryl Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Roman intaglio Bust Portrait of middle-aged beardless man (signed by Apollonios) 1st century BC garnet Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Roman intaglio Mask of Silenus conjoined with Female Tragic Mask 1st century BC - 3rd century AD sard Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Roman intaglio Portrait Head of Young Woman 1st century BC - 3rd century AD carnelian Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Roman cameo Emperor Augustus AD 41-54 sardonyx Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Roman intaglio Heads of Septimius Severus, Julia Domna, Caracalla, and Geta AD 208-209 carnelian Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Roman intaglio Head of Kronos, father of Zeus (copy of earlier Greek gem) 1st century BC - 3rd century AD carnelian Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Roman intaglio Personification of Libya, with Elephant Headdress 1st century BC - 3rd century AD carnelian Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Roman intaglio Royal Portrait Head (signed by Gnaios) 27 BC - AD 14 carnelian Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |