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Argentum, Silver

Argentum, Silver Page of 453 Argentum, Silver Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
7G
ARGENTUM.
recommendation of imperishability; counteracted, alas! in too many cases by the intrinsic value of the basis.
This art was applied by the Asiatic metallurgists to the deco­ration of armour as early as Homer's days, for ho describes (II. xi. 25) Agamemnon's breastplate as inlaid with outlines οιμοι,, ten μέλανος κνάνοιο, " of dark azure," twelve of gold, and twenty of tin. In the former material were three dragons on each side, stretching themselves up towards his neck. This was a present from Cinyras King of Cyprus, an island either belonging then to Egypt, or in very intimate relations with that kingdom. The band of his shield was adorned with a triple-headed dragon in the same composition. In Pliny's times (1. c.) it was applied to triumphal statues, and (54) he refutes the popular notion that statues in silver were unknown before the Augustan age, quoting such statues of Pharnaces and Mithridates as carried in Pom-pey's triumph.
Small works of the Lower Empire often occur with devices upon them in a true niello, fused into an engraved outline ; and some copper plaques have come to my knowledge with figures done in this composition : but we have no remains of any artistic value before it was taken up by the Florentine artist-goldsmiths. The Byzantines applied niello to the decoration of jewels in gold, in cases where it was not convenient to introduce the cloisonné enamels they loved so much as embellishments to that precious metal ; and of this class also examples are yet extant.
But the latter style had been long before in use, for Heliodorus, writing in the 4th century (AEth. iii. 4), describes the zone worn by his heroine Chariclea as " a work in which the artificer had locked up the whole of his skill, having never before wrought such a piece, neither being able to do so a second time. It was made like two serpents, their tails tied together behind the wearer's back in a knot, whilst their necks, passing underneath her breasts, were entwined in a tortuous noose ; whilst their heads, allowed to pass through this tie, hung downwards on either side as an addition to the fastening : you would have said that the serpents did not seem, but actually did crawl : yet they were not terrific with a menacing and cruel aspect, but relaxed by a gentle torpor, as though lulled to sleep by love upon the
Argentum, Silver Page of 453 Argentum, Silver
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