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CRYSTALLUS.
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115
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endure,
these early Italian forgers imitated above all the rest the Emerald and
the Peridot, for, these gems being but little superior in hardness to
paste, such a means of detection could not be safely applied to them.
Although
it has been remarked above that no antique intagli in this stone are
known to exist, yet there is an epigram by Diodorus (Anth. ix. 776),
entitled, " Upon an engraved Crystal."
"
The art and colouring Zeuxis well might claim, Yet Satyreius is my
author's name, Who in the crystal drew Arsinoe's form, A faithful image
with life's beauty warm : An offering to his queen : though small in
size, No larger work with me in merit vies."
This
was an image of Arsinoë " drawn " by Satyreius, to which the poet
ascribes all the " colouring and the elegance " of Zeuxis, strange
expressions for a work in a gem. But the term äáßäáëïí *
applied to it shows that he is speaking of a bust in full relief, work
of which examples in Rock-crystal are not wanting, the most famous
being the Odescalchi Venus, nearly six inches high, and executed in the
best antique manner ; and, what bears more directly upon the point, the
fine Memnonian head in high relief of a young Ptolemy lately acquired
by the British Museum.f On the other hand, it was the material which
the Renaissance masters preferred above all others
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