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Sapphirus, Lapis-lazuli

Sapphirus, Lapis-lazuli Page of 453 Sardius, Sard Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
SAPPHIRUS.
295
of Pliny's assertion ; though such arc rarely works of great merit, yet fairly executed Roman intagli in Lapis-lazuli are often to be seen. The Marlborough Cabinet possesses a few ; more remarkable, however, for the extraordinary beauty and depth of colour of the material, than for the engravings of this date upon them. The Persians under the Sassanian dynasty often em­ployed it for the seals bearing regal portraits.
With the Italians of the Cinque-cento it was an especial favourite, particularly for vases (of which the Louvre Museum displays a matchless example), and for miniature busts, and small relievi.
A serious defect of this substance is that by exposure to heat and moisture it loses its beautiful azure, and assumes sometimes a black, sometimes a chalky appearance ; yet the best quality used by the Romans has often retained both colour and polish unimpaired in wonderful perfection.
The Egyptians covered much of their small works in terra­cotta, idols, symbolical figures, rings, &c, with a coarse thick blue enamel, to give them the appearance of being carved out of this valuable mineral. But the Romans, who carried the manufacture of pastes to such perfection as regards colour and hardness, were eminently successful in their production of an artificial Lapis-lazuli, hardly to be distinguished when polished from the genuine stone. The most wonderful example of the art ever produced is the Townley Bonus Eventus (British Museum), where the youthful deity is represented a three-quarter length and in half relief, in the most finished style of Roman art, upon a slab of this composition about eight inches square. The relief has been carefully worked over after leaving the matrix in the same manner as a cameo in hard stone ; and nothing can be more perfect than the imitation of the azure and texture of the actual Lapis-lazuli. The figure is evidently the portrait of some youth­ful Caesar, represented according to custom under the character of this deity of promise ; the features harsh and surly in their expression, though somewhat softened down by the artist, are indubitably those of the young Caracalla, thus inappropriately personified.
Sapphirus, Lapis-lazuli Page of 453 Sardius, Sard
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