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Alabandicus, Almandine, Garnet

Alabandicus, Almandine, Garnet Page of 453 Alabandicus, Almandine, Garnet Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
54                                   ALABANDICUS.
Garnets seem to have been little employed by the Greeks for engraving upon, but were largely in favour with the Romans of the Empire, though not at a very early date, as may be con­cluded from the frequent occurrence of splendid stones com­pletely disfigured by the wretched abortions in the way of intagli cut upon them, evidently the productions of the very decrepitude of the art. Nevertheless, many tolerable, and a few excellent intagli do occur on Garnet, but for the most part on the Almandine, a testimony to the superior estimation in which that variety has ever been held. That very intaglio to which, as Kohler justly observes, neither ancient nor modern art has ever produced an equal as regards the skill and industry displayed in the execution, the " Head of the Dog Sirius" in the Marlborough Collection, is engraved in a perfect Indian Garnet of unusual size and beauty. The impression from this intaglio presents the head in full relief, with open jaws, the interior of the mouth represented with miraculous fidelity ; and its value still further enhanced by the legend on the collar, ΓΑΙΟΕ ΕΠΟΙΕΙ. The antiquity of this work has been disputed, without much cause : certain it is that the artist Natter, to whom it has been assigned, was far from capable of producing such a masterpiece. Another smaller replica of the same head on an Almandine is known : the hot and fiery nature of the stone was doubtless regarded as analogous to the subject upon it, the blazing Dog Star. Another famous Almandine is that of the same cabinet, engraved in the highest style of Roman art with the heads of Socrates and Plato ; a gem which above all others has served to identify the portraits of the latter philosopher. A few other fine heads in this stone might be quoted, but such are of excessive rarity, and all belong to Imperial times.
Heads of the Sassanian kings frequently appear upon this gem ; in fact, it would seem to have been regarded by the later Persians as a royal stone, from the preference they have given it as the bearer of the sovereign's image and superscription.
Callistratus states that some of the Indian Carbunculi attained such extraordinary dimensions as to admit of being formed into cups holding a sextarius, or nearly a pint. Such stones, according to Satyrus, were never clear, but generally foul within,
Alabandicus, Almandine, Garnet Page of 453 Alabandicus, Almandine, Garnet
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