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MEDIEVAL GEM ENGRAVING.
By C. TV. KING, M.A.
All who
have written upon the Glyptic Art assume that gem engraving was utterly
extinct in Europe during the whole extent of the Middle Ages that is,
from the coronation of Charlemagne as Emperor of the West in the year
800 down to the middle of the fifteenth century (1453), when Greek
fugitives from Constantinople re-established its practice in Italy.)
The continuance of the art within the Greek empire during that period
does not enter into the question, for this, together with all the other
arts of antiquity, maintained a feeble existence there down to the very
last, as numerous camei, some in fine sardonyx but the greater part in
bloodstone, remain to testify. The agreement of these in style with
the bezants of John Zimisses and the Comneni shows that the manufacture
of such ecclesiastical decorations (their subjects are always
Scriptural) was prosecuted with considerable briskness between the
tenth century and the thirteenth. No Byzantine intagli were,
however, produced during the same period, for if such had existed, they
would be easily recognisable by the same unmistakeable stamp of the
epoch impressed upon them, both as to subjects and their treatment,
that marks the Byzantine camei and ivory carvings. The reason for this
extinction of intaglio engraving-is obvious enough ; signets cut in
hard stones were no longer in request, the official seals for stamping
the leaden bullae authenticating public documents were, like coin-dies,
sunk in iron ; whilst those for personal use were engraved in the
precious metals.
Camei
were the ornaments above all others deemed appropriate for reliquaries
and similar furniture of the altar; a tradition dating from imperial
times. In the estimate of art then current, the value of the material
and the time expended
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