Tracing foreign identities on Roman engraved gems. Several Examples from the Archaeological Museum in Zagreb (original) (raw)
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Engraved gems from Andetrium in the Zagreb Archaeological Museum
Vjesnik Arheološkog muzeja u Zagrebu, vol. 54, no. 1, 2021, pp. 45-54, 2021
This paper analyses 11 engraved gems from Gornji Muć. They belong to the collection of Roman engraved gems in the Archaeological Museum in Zagreb and were acquired in the 19 th century by Mijo Jerko Granić, the priest of Gornji Muć. These gems were found in Gornji Muć, which was the location of the Roman auxiliary fort of Andetrium, and therefore add to our knowledge of Roman gems from military sites in Croatia.
Gołyźniak P. Ancient Engraved Gems in the National Museum in Krakow. Wiesbaden: Reichert Verlag 2017., 2017
The book is available to order from: https://reichert-verlag.de/schlagworte/altaegyptischer\_stil\_schlagwort/9783954902439\_ancient\_engraved\_gems\_in\_the\_national\_museum\_in\_krakow-detail This book is a catalogue raisonée of a rich collection of ancient engraved gems housed in the National Museum in Krakow. It offers a thorough insight into ancient glyptic art through the considerable range of almost 780 so far unpublished objects – cameos, intaglios, scarabs and finger rings of various styles, workmanship and cultural circles: Egyptian, Near Eastern, Minoan, Greek, Etruscan, Italic, Roman, Sassanian and early Christian, dated from the second millennium BC to the seventh century AD. Many pieces in this cabinet are notable not only for their top quality in terms of craftsmanship and design, but also for the materials used and engravings involving complex iconography illustrating religious beliefs, political allegiances, needs and desires that ancient people wished to be fulfill, fears, dangers and terrors from which they sought protection and even their daily occupations. The collection provides with a fascinating gallery of portrait studies presenting Hellenistic rulers and their queens, Roman emperors and members of their families as well as some private individuals. Some specimens are exceptional and unparalleled like the onyx cameo portraying Drusus Maior, likely executed by the hand of Eutyches, son of famous Dioscurides (cover) or a tiny but remarkably cut emerald cameo with a laureate portrait bust of Livia Drusilla as goddess Venus. Some objects have been preserved in their original settings (gold, silver, bronze, iron rings), which contributes to the study of ancient gems’ chronology and indicate their users, while others have been later re-set into eighteenth- and nineteenth-century collectors’ rings and sometimes more elaborated mounts. There are also pieces discoloured due to contact with considerable heat, which may suggest them to have been burnt with other personal objects on the funeral pyres and later deposited in burials. Noteworthy is the number of Greek and Latin inscriptions appearing on intaglios and cameos forming this cabinet. They span from owners’ names to the subtle messages communicated between lovers and invocations to the God. Each gem is thoroughly analysed, described and exhaustively commented as to the device it bears, chronology and possible workshop attribution. A vast number of parallel objects is referenced too. This combined with provenance study presented in the first part of the book enabled to establish where a number of intaglios and cameos were manufactured, including almost 140 objects most likely to origin from the most important Roman workshop located in Aquileia. It ought to be singled out that many gems in this volume once constituted a part of distinguished collections formed by such personalities as Tobias von Biehler, Alessandro Gregorio Capponi, Auguste le Carpentier, Alessandro Castellani, Comte de Caylus, Count Nikolai Nikitich Demidoff, Baron Albert de Hirsch, Jean François Leturcq, Sibylle Mertens-Schaaffhausen, Dr. George Frederick Nott, Benedetto Pistrucci, James-Alexandre de Pourtalès (Comte de Pourtalès-Gorgier), Paul von Praun, Andrey Kirillovich Razumovsky, Jacques Meffre Rouzan, Philipp von Stosch, Antonio Maria Zanetti and many more. They seemed lost for more than 130 years, but now have been brought back and are accessible to everyone. Consequently, the volume presents three intriguing stories of collectors whose donations contributed to the Krakow assemblage. They not only provide the reader with a sort of background for the objects discussed further, but also illustrate nineteenth- and early twentieth-century collecting practices and the art market for engraved gemstones, contributing to our knowledge of the history of scholarship and collecting. In summary, this book is intended to be useful not only for scholars interested in gems, but also those who study the history of the art market and collecting as well as all the enthusiasts of Classical art and archaeology.
S. Nemeti, I. Nemeti, F. Fodorean, S. Cociș, EST MODVS IN REBVS. Essays Presented to Professor Mihai Bărbulescu at his 75 th anniversary, 2022
The pretext of this article is a gemstone ring discovered by chance in Borzești, in the Cluj County area. The gem is decorated with the image of a rider, this type of representation being rare on the gems known in the province of Dacia. The analysis of the iconographic repertoire of the rider image in Dacian glyptic has allowed us to make some observations regarding minor iconography.
SCIENCE BEYOND BOUNDARIES II / Nauka bez granica II, medjunarodni tematski zbornik, 2019
The growing interest in the period of Late Antiquity and the place objects of applied art have gained within the framework of contemporary visual culture studies served as reasons for re-examining the role and iconographic solution on a group of Late Antique objects. These include two lamps kept at the Belgrade City Museum, a reliquary from the National Institute of Archaeology and Museum at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (NIAM-BAS) in Sofia and a cameo from the collection of the National Museum in Belgrade. One of the lamps from the Belgrade City Museum is decorated with the representation of a bearded man on the disc. On other objects, we encounter a cross flanked by figures identified as St Constantine and Helen. There are no known analogies for the lamp with a bearded male portrait from the Belgrade City Museum. Judging by the craftsmanship, the lamp is of North African provenance, produced at Sidi Marzouk Tounsi in the fifth century. The figure on the disc has been identified as both Christ or the emperor Julian the Apostate, the latter version being adopted by a number of authors. Still, the provenance and date of these objects disprove both identifications. The iconographic solution does not correspond to the type of a beardless Christ appearing on the lamps of this period. On the other hand, it is difficult to imagine the mass production of objects depicting the apostate emperor in the time of the anti-pagan measures of Theodosius and his successors, as well as in the spiritual climate of the North African provinces marked by the personality of Augustine of Hippo. Comparisons with other, accurately identified portraits of Julian, demonstrate that he is always shown bearing prominent imperial insignia, primarily a diadem and a fibula adorned with precious stones. However, the figure depicted on the lamp shows similarities with the description of the Neopythagorean philosopher Apollonios of Tyana and the portrait on the contourniate issued in Rome at the end of the fourth century. An ascetic, miracle worker and healer, Apollonios was the subject of controversy between Christians and pagans in Late Antiquity. Whereas pagan circles regarded him as a holy man, Christians perceived Apollonios as a threat to the authority of Christ the Miracle Worker, yet acknowledging him some qualities due to the spirituality and ascetic life he was leading. We meet the same ambivalent attitude towards Apollonios in Augustus, who mentiones him in two of his epistles. As for the objects showing figures flanking the cross, which have been thought to represent St Constantine and Helen, it turned out that in all three cases, the identification was imprecise or insufficiently substantiated. On the basis of analogies from Athens and Florence, the Egyptian provenance of the lamp from the Belgrade City Museum has been established. The iconographic details of the representation, above all the naked and accentuated breasts of a female figure, suggest that the scene depicts St Thecla and Minas. Thecla was a saint from Asia Minor, whose cult spread throughout the Mediterranean in the fourth century. It was particularly accepted in Egypt, where Thecla was associated with St Minas, a well-venerated Egyptian saint and miracle worker. The connection between the two cults and their popularity in Egypt from the forth to the seventh centuries can be confirmed by written sources and pilgrimage items depicting St Minas and Thecla, appearing individually or together, in several iconographic variants. Regarding the reliquary from Yabalkovo, we may still find sources supporting the claim that St Constantine and Helen are shown on the lid of a silver box, despite the fact that already in 1990 Vikan pointed to the analogy with the engagement and wedding rings, based on the inscription OMONOIA and a pair of busts, male and female, flanking the cross. The inscription and form of the representation speak in favour of the thesis of a married couple on a small chest that was part of the bride’s trousseau. The context of the finding indicates that the object was secondarily used as a reliquary. Intaglio of jasper, today housed at the National Museum in Belgrade, is decorated with a delicate and very stylised representation of a cross flanked by figures. There are not enough elements to determine whether the figures be male and female or two males. The formal and stylistic details point to Sassanid art production. Although we cannot completely reject the possibility that the figures show St Constantine and Helen, the existing analogies suggest two male figures, possibly the Apostles Peter and Paul. When it comes to the cultural climate of Late Antiquity, a group of seemingly unrelated objects appears illustrative enough. They reveal the simultaneous persistence of pagan and Christian traditions, the Christianisation of pagan customs, and the way secular objects gain cultic purpose by means of recontextualization. A lamp with orants is a confirmation of the widespread pilgrimage practice, while the cameo from the National Museum in Belgrade attests to the interculturality of the period.
RINGS AND GEMS FROM THE ROMAN FORT IN IŽA (Full text in English and Slovak)
2021
The Roman fort in Iža is a frontier fortress of the Roman Empire on the Danube, opposite the legionary camp of Brigetio (today Ó-Szőny). Archaeological research at the site has been carried out since the beginning of the 20th century until today. This publication presents rings and gems from the area of the military fort and its immediate surroundings. The finds are examined individually - as personal jewellery, but also in the context of the military environment and taking into account the findspot, where known. In the publication they are divided according to the development phases of the site into two main groups from the period of the wood-and timber fort (174/175-179) and the stone fort (end of the 2nd - end of the 4th centuries). From the older period there are 10 rings and 1 gem, from the younger period 12 rings and 3 solitary gems. In addition, 2 rings with gems from the vicinity of the military camp and 1 gem found separately are also included in the collection. -- Rímsky vojenský tábor v Iži je pohraničná pevnosť Rímskej ríše na Dunaji oproti legionárskemu táboru Brigetio (dnes Ó-Szőny). Archeologický výskum na tomto mieste prebieha od začiatku 20. storočia až dodnes. Táto publikácia predstavuje prstene a gemy z areálu vojenskej pevnosti a jej bezprostredného okolia. Nálezy sú skúmané jednotlivo - ako osobné šperky, ale aj v kontexte vojenského prostredia a s prihliadnutím na nálezové okolnosti, ak sú známe. V publikácii sú rozdelené podľa vývojových fáz lokality do dvoch hlavných skupín z obdobia drevozemného tábora (174/175-179) a kamenného kastela (koniec 2. - koniec 4. storočia). Zo staršieho obdobia je 10 prsteňov (niektoré s gemami) a 1 samostatne nájdená gema, z mladšieho obdobia 12 prsteňov (niektoré s gemami a 3 samostatne nájdené gemy. Okrem toho sú do zbierky zaradené aj 2 prstene s gemami z okolia vojenského tábora a 1 gema nájdená samostatne.
Roman Engraved Gems in the National Archaeological Museum in Lisbon
The article presents the collection of Roman engraved gems in the National Museum of Archaeology, in Lisbon. Although a small cabinet, it contains a wide variety of themes and motifs. Among the intaglios, the nicolos deserve to be especially highlighted for their quantity when compared with the others, thus strenghtening the evidence for the existence of a regional quartz industry in the city of Ammaia, which particularly specialized in the manufacture of nicolo gemstones. The themes match those existing throughout the Empire, but some items deserve special attention: Eros removing a thorn from a lion’s paw (no. 3); three Satyrs performing a sacrifice (no. 1); the wounded warrior (no. 31); the ‘prodigy scene’ (no. 36); Faustulus, the Capitoline Wolf and the twins (no. 37); a possible portrait of Cleopatra (no. 42); the Jewish symbols (no. 70) and the magical amulet (no. 72).