contemporary
work, had such been attainable. As a proof of this, immediately upon
the Revival we find the most eminent gem-engravers employed almost
exclusively in executing crystal plaques with intagli of Scriptural
subjects for the furniture of the altar.
Nor
did such an exclusion of contemporary works (had any existed) arise
from a disregai'd of the productions of the glyptic art. The rudest
works of antiquity are to be seen enchased in Gothic goldsmiths' work,
honored with the same precious mountings as the finest and most costly
stones. It was enough that the subject suited the taste of the
goldsmith, the art exhibited therein was altogether disregarded. It is
very plain besides, that, (in consequence of the prevalent belief in
the virtue of sigils, all engraved stones were esteemed as more
valuable than those not engraved) even though the latter were of a more
precious species. Again, it was not its mere antiquity that gave the
sigil its virtue : that was derived entirely from the heavenly
influence under which it had been made, and therefore the same and
invariable whatever was the date of its execution. For example, we
have abundant proof that, as soon as the art was revived, the
manufacture of astrological talismans flourished quite as vigorously as
of old under the Lower Empire. The case therefore stands thus. We find
signets as important as ever, and their execution employing the best
skill of the age, but taking for their material only metal; whilst,
nevertheless, antique intagli in gems were more valuable than ever, and
adapted to the prevailing notions by the most forced interpretations.
The supply, too, falling so short of the demand that the very rudest
were accepted and highly prized by persons not destitute of an
appreciation of the beautiful, or at least of the highly finished—and,
nevertheless, in spite of all this love of engraved stones, not a
single production existing of that class which can be assigned to a
Gothic artist. From these considerations we are forced to agree that
the general conclusion of archaeologists is well founded, and that the
art during all the above period was totally extinct in Europe except
within the precincts of Constantinople.
It
is true that a passage or two in the works of mediaeval writers seem to
contravene this conclusion, for example, where Marbodus, writing at the
close of the eleventh century, directs how to engrave particular sigils
on the proper
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