Much
has been written about the ring or rather the engrave seal of
Michaelangelo. This gem enjoyed such high esteem that it was very often
copied, the copies sometimes acquiring the repute of being originals.
Four of them, two in paste, one in amethyst, and one in carnelian,
exist in Denmark, the two latter having the dimensions of the original
gem. The copy in carnelian— the stone in which the original was cut—is
exceptionally well executed.69 The original seal is now in
the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris and came into the possession of
Louis XIV in 1680. The king wore it set in a ring.
It
was brought to France in 1600 by a Sieur Bigarris, director of the
Mint, and its history was at the time traced back to Agosto Tassi,
goldsmith in Bologna, to whom Michelangelo had bequeathed it. The gem
was the work of Pier Maria di Pescia, and bears his symbolic signature,
a boy fishing (pescia, fishing). The dimensions are given as
15 mm. by 11 mm., the form being oval, and in this restricted space is
a design embracing twelve human figures, two genii, a horse, a goat and
a tree. Two of the figures appear to have been copied from a detail of
Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel frescoes : a woman helping another woman
to place a basket of grapes upon her head. Watelet and Levesque in
their "Dictionnaire des Arts" published in 1791, characterize this seal as " the most beautiful engraved gem known."
The
Royal Collection at Windsor Castle contains a gold ring set with a
cameo portrait of Louis XII, of France (1498-1515), cut in a pale ruby
of clear lustre. The work is believed to have been executed during the
lifetime of the king, and was considered by Rev. C. W. King to be the
earliest Renaissance portrait cut on a
69 Emil Hannover in " Politikon " Kjobenhavn, April 10, 1911.
