Quantcast
  Due to a new server, slow response may occur for which we apologize Portal logo
Login/Register
Bactrian Gold Treasure from Afghanistan, coming soon....
/gemstones/king-natural-history/page_089 - 2
 

Caelatura, Antique Plate

Caelatura, Antique Plate Page of 453 Caelatura, Antique Plate Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
80
CAELATURA.
Capitol. Next to him came Acragas, Boethus, and Mys, all Rhodians. Their best works were still preserved in three of the temples of that island; they were bowls, scyphi, with reliefs of Centaurs and Bacchantes. The most admired piece by Mys was a group of Sileni and Cupids: of Acragas, a hunting scene. After them came Calamis, Antipater, " who seems rather to have planted in reality his drowsy satyr on the vase, than to have chased his figure," Stratonicus of Cyzicus, Tauriscus, and others. In Pompey's time Pasiteles ; Hedystratides, famous for his battle-pieces; Zopyrus, celebrated for his Areopagites and Trial of Orestes upon two bowls, valued at 12,000 sesterces (120 l) ; and lastly, Pytheas, of whom a piece only weighing two ounces, the Eape of the Palladium, sold for 10,000 denarii (400 l.).5 The same artist was noted for very small cups embossed with cooking scenes, magiriscia, made so very thin that it was impossible to take a cast from them for fear of bruising the relief. The art afterwards, says Pliny, died out all at once : so that the old work came to be valuable for its antiquity alone, even though the subjects were completely defaced by wear. For this he assigns the reason (49), " At present anaglypta chiselled work is all the rage, in which the silver is cut away around the outline of the design :"6 in fact, executed exactly as a cameo, whence no doubt the change of taste. It must be confessed that for use this carved work in flat relief was vastly preferable to the thin repousse work so easily damaged, so readily detached from its vase. The latter point Cicero illustrates by drawing a ludicrous picture of Verres at a dinner given him by Eupolemas, a Sicilian, appro­priating before the eyes of the astonished host and company the emblemata from the only two vases so adorned that were exposed to his observation : and how he served Pompeius Philo the same trick with his single dish that he ventured to produce, who had fancied himself secure as being a " Civis Romanus." Pliny notes that Zenodorus, the statuary of Nero's days, copied for
Caelatura, Antique Plate Page of 453 Caelatura, Antique Plate
Suggested Illustrations
Other Chapters you may find useful
Other Books on this topic
bullet Tag
This Page