152 A POPULAR TREATISE ON GEMS
Persians
engraved mostly mythological animals or priests in their gems; the
Egyptians, beetles, which they adored, and which are called the
scarabaei. " Abraxes" were the oldest gems, which had the
representation of fantastical animals, with the above word in the Greek
language, engraved on them.
The
Phenicians, Hetrurians, and Greeks learned the art of carving from the
Egyptians ; and from them it was carried to the Romans, where it was
lost, in the decline of the empire, in the fifteenth century, under the
Popes Martin V. and Paul II. The art was revived again by some fugitive
Greeks in Italy. Great merit is also due to the Medicians for the
revival of the art; and Giovani was considered the first in Italy. The talisman, or
carved gems bearing Arabian letters, belong to those times. Precious
stones with layers and veins, or such as onyx, sardonyx, &c, were
employed by the ancients, with great skill, in the carving of cameos,
where we find the head of one color, and the hair and dress of a
different color carved out of the other layer of the stone. Very often
the subjects were mythological, and this mode of carving or sculpture
has been imitated by modern artists. It is sometimes with difficulty
that wo are enabled to distinguish the ancient from the modern works,
and the only authentic authority for the antiquity of the cameo or
intaglio is its excavation from ancient monuments, except in a few
instances, where we may be able to judge by comparison of the
difference in antiquity; by observing whether or not they, are
unnaturally, or stiffly done;.have large hea'ds, hands, and feet, or
stiff streaks resembling the hair, &c. We find that some gods,
representing the peculiar gems (such we see all sculptures of Bacchus,
and what relates to him), were executed in amethyst, being the color of
wine; and all nymphs, Neptune, or fish, in aquamarine, &c, the
