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Ch. 4: Caelatura, Antique Plate

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CAELATORA.
143
giriscia),* wrought so wondrously delicate that it was im­possible to take casts from them for fear of bruising the relief. After this, adds Pliny, the art died out all at once, so that the old work came to be sought after for its antiquity alone, even though its subjects were completely defaced by wear. For this its sudden extinction when at the height of its glory he assigns the reason (49), " At present chiselled work (anaglypta) is all the rage, in which the silver is cut away around the outlines of the design." (Nunc anaglypta asperitatemque, exciso circa linearum picturas quaerimus.)t In fact it was executed precisely in the manner of a cameo in sardonyx, a species of decoration for plate then rapidly coming into vogue. It must, how­ever, be confessed, that for practical use, this carved orna­mentation in flat relief was justly preferable to the more effective but fragile repoussé-work, so liable to be crushed, so easy to be detached from the vase. The latter point Cicero strikingly illustrates by drawing a ludicrous pic­ture of Verres, at a dinner given him by a Sicilian noble­man, Eupolemus, appropriating, before the eyes of the astounded host and company, the emblemata from the sole pair of vases thus enriched that were exposed to his observation : and again how he served Pompeius Philo
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