A nineteenth-century glyptic collection in the National Museum in Krakow. The cabinet of Constantine Schmidt-Ciążyński. (original) (raw)
Related papers
Glyptic Treasures in Krakow and Old Masters Paintings Collection of Constantine Schmidt-Ciążyński
Kubala, A. (ed.), Collecting Antiquities from the Middle Ages to the End of the Nineteenth Century. Proceedings of the International Conference Held on March 25-26, 2021 at the Wrocław University Institute of Art History, 2021
This article is based on two lectures delivered during the symposium “Collecting Antiquities from the Middle Ages to the End of the Nineteenth Century” held at the University of Wrocław, 25–26 March, 2021. It discusses two collections related to the glyptic art housed in Krakow: a pictorial archive once owned by Philipp von Stosch including visual reproductions of his own gems as well as those from other contemporary cabinets, now in the Princes Czartoryski Museum in Krakow and the Constantine Schmidt-Ciążyński collection of engraved gems in the National Museum in Krakow. These two different sets enable us to illustrate the history of collecting intaglios and cameos, and explain why engraved gems became such a popular phenomenon among the eighteenth and nineteenth century enthusiasts of antiquity, its art and craftsmanship. In addition, Constantine Schmidt-Ciążyński’s collection of Old Masters paintings is briefly discussed as another proof of his extraordinary connoisseurship and taste.
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 It offers a thorough insight into ancient glyptic art through the considerable range of almost 780 so far unpublished objects – cameos, intaglios, scarabs and finger rings of various styles, workmanship and cultural circles: Egyptian, Near Eastern, Minoan, Greek, Etruscan,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.
A Rediscovered Poniatowski Gem in the National Museum in Krakow.
Jewellery Studies - The Journal of The Society of Jewellery Historians, 2018
This paper presents new research about the origins of engraved gems in the collection of Constantine Schmidt-Ciążyński (1818-1889), partially preserved in the National Museum in Krakow. It is now possible to identify Prince Stanislas Poniatowski (1754-1833) as the former owner of one intaglio. The Prince’s gems were completely dispersed after his death (1833) at auction organised by Christie's in London in 1839. Only the descriptions in the catalogues and incomplete sets of impressions in Berlin (Antikensammlung) and Oxford (Beazley Archive) allow us to identify original gems from the collection. The Schmidt-Ciążyński intaglio which can securely be identified is presented here. In the absence of archive documents, it is extremely difficult to ascertain when and where Schmidt-Ciążyński could have bought this specimen. Nevertheless, an attempt was made to propose some possibilities. The discovery is important because it was thought that the collector did not buy any Poniatowski gems. Now this issue must be reconsidered.
The impact of the Poniatowski gems on later gem engraving.
Studies in Ancient Art and Civilization (SAAC), 2016
In the first half of the 19th century, the Prince Stanisław Poniatowski (1754–1833) collection of engraved gems was considered to be one of the most outstanding known assemblages. However, its sale at Christie’s in 1839 was a disaster, as the cabinet turned out to include almost only neo-classical specimens and, thus, half of the gems did not go under the hammer. But these intaglios and cameos, and especially the themes they bear, portray in their beauty an effort to re-create a lost neo-classical world as reflected in the texts of Homer, Vergil, and other ancient authors. In contrary to other works on the Poniatowski gems, this paper focuses not on the collection itself, but on its impact on the later gem engraving. It presents two intaglios from the collection of the National Museum in Krakow. The first presents a scene of Hebe pouring out nectar for Jupiter (with an eagle behind him). The second depicts a crowned snake-god with the incorrect Latin inscription: VOT·SOL·CER. They are faithful copies of two Poniatowski gems. In fact, the first gem testifies to the great contribution of the Poniatowski collection to the reception of Classical culture, while the other is a falsification of the original which reflects a later collector’s aim to possess a ‘Poniatowski gem’.
THE HERMITAGE SET OF CASTS FROM THE COLLECTION OF ENGRAVED GEMS IN THE BERLIN ANTIQUARIUM
The Terra Artis. Art and Design academic journal, 2022
The article focuses on the history of acquisition by the Imperial Hermitage Museum of the collection of casts made by Martin Krause from engraved gems in the Berlin Antiquarium. To date, only one collection by this artist is known, the one ordered for the University of Göttingen. Thus, the purpose of this article is to introduce the Hermitage set of casts made from the gems in the famous Berlin collection. Using this particular collection as an example, the author reviews its structure, function, and characteristics, and intends to show the general importance of casts in the scientific life of Europe and Russia, and specifically for the study of antique engraved gems. Prior to the development of high quality photography of small-scale objects such as glyptics, casts were an indispensable means of research and publication for both private and public collections. Having originated in the private sphere, the practice of making and assembling collections of casts was subsequently transformed over the course of the 19th century due to research publications on glyptics, which remained relevant even when the majority of them started to be illustrated with photographs.
2022
The article focuses on the history of acquisition by the Imperial Hermitage Museum of the collection of casts made by Martin Krause from engraved gems in the Berlin Antiquarium. To date, only one collection by this artist is known, the one ordered for the University of Göttingen. Thus, the purpose of this article is to introduce the Hermitage set of casts made from the gems in the famous Berlin collection. Using this particular collection as an example, the author reviews its structure, function, and characteristics, and intends to show the general importance of casts in the scientific life of Europe and Russia, and specifically for the study of antique engraved gems. Prior to the development of high quality photography of small-scale objects such as glyptics, casts were an indispensable means of research and publication for both private and public collections. Having originated in the private sphere, the practice of making and assembling collections of casts was subsequently transformed over the course of the 19th century due to research publications on glyptics, which remained relevant even when the majority of them started to be illustrated with photographs.
Magical Gems in their Contexts (ed. Endreffy, K. - Nagy, A. M. - Spier, J.), 2019
Today, Czech museum and institution collections, as well as private collections, contain over 350 gems, most of which have not been scientifically researched or published. The present paper aims at providing a brief overview of this material, focusing on a recent analysis of magical gems.
in ed. J. Swaddling, An Etruscan Affair: The Impact of Early Etruscan Discoveries on European Culture (British Museum Research Publication 211), London: British Museum Press 2018, pp. 83-93. ISBN-13: 978-0861592111 ISBN-10: 0861592115, 2018
ABSTRACT: This book chapter considers the interest in Etruscan engraved gems and jewellery in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, from the scholarly and collecting activities of Philipp von Stosch, Anton Francesco Gori and others in Florence in the heyday of the Etruscan Revival, to the complete re-systematization of the Etruscan glyptic material by Adolf Furtwängler at the turn of the century 1900. It also discusses the interesting cultural phenomenon of the dactyliothecae (gem cast cabinets), amateur and commercial serial-production of gem impressions and gem casts in various materials, and the re-use and imitation of Etruscan gems and goldwork in the so-called “archaeological jewellery” produced by the Castellani and other workshops.
Engraved Gems from Tbilisi, Georgia. The Natsvlishvili Family Collection
2022
This book presents nearly 200 objects of glyptic art from the Natsvlishvili Family collection, Tbilisi, Georgia. Their cultural, geographical and chronological diversity is considerable starting from the Near Eastern cylinder and stamp seals as well as amulets, through the Egyptian scarabs, Greek and Roman intaglios and cameos, the post-classical gems and contemporary forgeries. This eclectic collection was a base for an essay on the subject of how to differentiate genuine ancient engraved gems from their modern copies, pastiches and forgeries. That essay is an introduction to the detailed analysis of the objects discussed in the catalogue section. Overall, it is confirmed that the cabinet contains products of the local glyptics as well as the imported ones to the territory of Georgia from all over the world through ages. The book also gives a valuable insight into the role of Tbilisi as a hub for exchange and trade in antiquities and works of art in the second half of the 19th and 20th century.