Culture of Philanthropy

From the earliest times man's attention had been attracted by the beauty and
unusual nature of precious and semi-precious stones and he superstitiously
credited them with miraculous properties. Thus they
became amulets as well as ornaments. The next step was to enhance the magical
significance of the jewels by covering them with various kinds of symbols and
images. A carved stone could also serve as
the personal seal of its owner. Intaglio seals, which combined decorative, magical
and practical functions, became particularly popular in the ancient world. They
gradually replaced seals made of other
materials. The fact that intaglio seals were hard to counterfeit may have been an
important reason for this, since the working of the mineral and the process of
covering its surface with miniature decoration
demanded a great deal of time and effort as well as a high degree of mastery. The
exceptional hardness of these minerals could be overcome only by processing
them with diamond point or the rapid
turning movement of a metal point moistened with an oily mixture of
diamond-powder or other powdered abrasives.
Nevertheless it would be unjust to place too strong an emphasis on the imitative
character of Western European glyptics, although art critics frequently do this. Its
achievements would hardly have become the subject of special research, if the
fascination of antiquity had been so strong that the only criterion for estimating the
artistic worth of these precious stones was their greater or lesser resemblance to
classical originals. This classicizing tendency, as careful study will show, conceals
the very powerful links between glyptics and Western European, art as a whole.
Why it is that these connections are most clearly apparent in relation to cameos is
explained by the fact that the expressive possibilities of cameos are much greater
than those of intaglios, and also that, from the very beginning, cameos were devoid
of any utilitarian purpose, which enabled gem-engravers to concentrate on purely
artistic problems.
The cameos chosen for the present album help display points of contact between
glyptics and other arts as they were at the time. This approach can be particularly
fruitful, as it helps to destroy the concept of post-classical glyptics as a
phenomenon isolated from the general development of the figurative arts.
This concept, rather widely spread to this day, is responsible for the fact that
modern art scholars in the western world almost entirely disregard this period in
the history of the glyptic art, though it is well illustrated by rich collections
preserved in many of the world's museums.
The history of the Hermitage cameo collection, one of the most extensive in the
world, dates back to the eighteenth century. Catherine the Great was aware of the
passion for engraved gems which was then seizing the whole of Europe. In a short
time the gems which were to form the nucleus of the Hermitage collection were
assembled in the Palace Museum, including the Paris collections of Louis-Philippe
d'Orleans, de Breteuil, D'Ennery and Saint-Moryce, the Dresden collection of
Jean-Baptiste Casanova, the London collection of Algernon Percy, and many
others of lesser importance. As well as the ancient gems, which were valued
particularly highly by their possessors, these collections contained cameos and
intaglios made by Western European gem-engravers.


	Culture of Philanthropy
From the earliest times man's attention had been attracted by the beauty and unusual nature of precious and semi-precious stones and he superstitiously credited them with miraculous properties. Thus they became amulets as well as ornaments. The next step was to enhance the magical significance of the jewels by covering them with various kinds of symbols and images. A carved stone could also serve as the personal seal of its owner. Intaglio seals, which combined decorative, magical and practical functions, became particularly popular in the ancient world. They gradually replaced seals made of other materials. The fact that intaglio seals were hard to counterfeit may have been an important reason for this, since the working of the mineral and the process of covering its surface with miniature decoration demanded a great deal of time and effort as well as a high degree of mastery. The exceptional hardness of these minerals could be overcome only by processing them with diamond point or the rapid turning movement of a metal point moistened with an oily mixture of diamond-powder or other powdered abrasives. Nevertheless it would be unjust to place too strong an emphasis on the imitative character of Western European glyptics, although art critics frequently do this. Its achievements would hardly have become the subject of special research, if the fascination of antiquity had been so strong that the only criterion for estimating the artistic worth of these precious stones was their greater or lesser resemblance to classical originals. This classicizing tendency, as careful study will show, conceals the very powerful links between glyptics and Western European, art as a whole. Why it is that these connections are most clearly apparent in relation to cameos is explained by the fact that the expressive possibilities of cameos are much greater than those of intaglios, and also that, from the very beginning, cameos were devoid of any utilitarian purpose, which enabled gem-engravers to concentrate on purely artistic problems. The cameos chosen for the present album help display points of contact between glyptics and other arts as they were at the time. This approach can be particularly fruitful, as it helps to destroy the concept of post-classical glyptics as a phenomenon isolated from the general development of the figurative arts. This concept, rather widely spread to this day, is responsible for the fact that modern art scholars in the western world almost entirely disregard this period in the history of the glyptic art, though it is well illustrated by rich collections preserved in many of the world's museums. The history of the Hermitage cameo collection, one of the most extensive in the world, dates back to the eighteenth century. Catherine the Great was aware of the passion for engraved gems which was then seizing the whole of Europe. In a short time the gems which were to form the nucleus of the Hermitage collection were assembled in the Palace Museum, including the Paris collections of Louis-Philippe d'Orleans, de Breteuil, D'Ennery and Saint-Moryce, the Dresden collection of Jean-Baptiste Casanova, the London collection of Algernon Percy, and many others of lesser importance. As well as the ancient gems, which were valued particularly highly by their possessors, these collections contained cameos and intaglios made by Western European gem-engravers.


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