Ancient art and its remains, or, A manual of the archaeology of art / By C.O. Müller.

  • Karl Otfried Müller
Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Ancient art and its remains, or, A manual of the archaeology of art / By C.O. Müller. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    85/664
    ENGRAVING STONES AND DIES. 66 Chimajra. Millingen, Un. Mon. Ser. ii. pi. 2, 3. [Also Alcoous and Sap- pho in the Brit. Mus. still unpublished.] 30. Terracotta relief from ^gina, the Hyperborean Artemis riding with Eros in a chariot drawn by griffins. Welcker, Mon. In. d. Inst. tv. 18 b. Ann. ii. p. 65. THE ART OF ENGRAVING STONES AND DIES. 97. The arts of engraving precious stones and coin-stamps gradually arose, as smaller and less regarded ramifications of the plastic art, into which life did not until late extend from the main branches. Both served as their first object the purposes of economy and trafiic. The art of stone-engraving was occu- pied with signet-rings, ff<pgay78ig, the demand for which was increased by the ancient practice of sealing up stores and trea- sures, but was also partly satisfied by metal or even wooden seals with devices of no significance. However, the art of Avorking in hard and precious stones at a very early period advanced, after the example of the Phoenicio-Babylonian stone-cutters (§. 238, 240), from a rude cutting out of round holes to the careful engraving of entire figures in antique se- vere style. 2. Regarding the sealing of rx^islu, Bottiger, Kupstmythol. S. 272. and elsewhere. On the old metal signet-rings, Atejus Capito ap. Macrob. Sat. vii, 13. Plin. xxxiii, 4. On the StQiTrofi^aroi, StQiTrnlearoi (in part ac- tually made from worm-eaten wood, and partly seals in imitation of it), see Sabnas. Exc. Plin. p. 653. b. It is doubtful whether the ring of Po- lycrates was engraved. Strab. xiv. p. 638; Pans, viii, 14, 5. Clemens Protr. iii. p. 247. Sylb. for the affirmative. Plin. xxxvii, 4 distinctly op- posed to that opinion: comp. Herod, iii, 41, (r(pQnyi; xewoScro? a/axQciylov >.t5>ov; Theodorus certainly did nothing more than enchase it [si fabula vera]. According to Diog. Laert. i, 2, §. 57, it was a law of Solon : Sa«. Tv^toy-Kv(pu f<.ij e'gihcii a(piya.y'il» (pv-Axrrsiv rod TTQaStei/To; IxKrvT^i'ov. The same writer, according to Hermippus, caUed the father of Pythagoras a iciKTv?iioyy^v<pos (viii, 1). 3. _ On ScarabsBi (§. 175. 230, 2) with figures, which almost entirely consist of round rudely formed holes placed close to one another, Meyer, Kunstgesch. i. s. 10. Tf. 1. An excellent coUection, partly of this sort and partly of ancient and careful workmanship, but chiefly Etruscan, is furnished in the Impronti Gemmarii d. Inst. Cen*. I 1—50. iii, 1—56. See besides, Lippert, Dactyl. Scr. i. P. ii. n. 79, 496. ii, 1, 431. ii, 103. Millin, Pierres Gravees Incd. 6, 7, 13, 25, 26, 50, 51. Specimens, p. Ixxxi. Comp. Lessing, Antiq. Bricfe Th. i. s. 155. Pacius, Misccllaneen zur Gesch. der Kunst. im Alterthum, iv, 2. s. 62 (where also are noticed the pretended ^(pQciylhs of mythology). Gurlitt, iiber die Gemmenkundp, Archajol. Schriften, s. 07 fF. Hirt, Amalthca ii. s. 12. D. A. K. Tf. 15. _ 98. Coined silver money had even about the 8th Olym- piad taken the place of the bar-money formerly used. It was E