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The history of gem engraving: the Beazley Archive’s research projects
Professor Donna Kurtz
Professor Donna Kurtz is Beazley Archivist, Professor of Classical Art in the University of Oxford, and a Fellow of Wolfson College. She has published numerous books and articles on classical Greek archaeology and art, information technology, communications, and visual arts. Here she describes the research carried out on gem carving at the Beazley Archive, which has received long-term support from the British Academy
The carving of gemstones, in intaglio or cameo, is one of the oldest arts, practised continuously from antiquity to the present day. Since the stones were precious, and their working laborious, they attracted the attention of the best artists. Collections were being formed by Hellenistic Greek princes and rich Romans as early as the 1st century BC. The Beazley Archive, the University of Oxford’s Classical Art Research Centre, is well equipped for research in gems, their collection and reception. The Centre has a rich library and a collection of impressions and casts of gems and cameos, many unique, that is widely considered to be one of the most comprehensive in the world. The Centre is heir to a tradition of scholarship in the subject that began with Sir John Beazley himself (1885-1970), and is continued today by Sir John Boardman and his team.
Thanks to a Larger Research Grant from the British Academy (2005-7) the Centre was able to retain a senior researcher whose work has subsequently won a Major Curatorial Grant from the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art (2007- 9). Among the many research activities carried out over the years of the grant is the provision on line of important data and pictures (www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/gems), especially the compendia of impressions made by 18th–century scholars such as James Tassie and P.D. Lippert.
Figure 1
A Neo-classical gem carved for Count Poniatowski,
showing Alexander cutting the Gordian knot, a subject
never shown in antiquity. Early 19th century.
Dr Claudia Wagner, the Centre’s Gem Researcher, has been studying the series of neo-classical gems carved for Prince Poniatowski (Fig. 1), dispersed in the mid-19th century (www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/gems/poniatowski). These remarkable original studies in a classicising style are based more on knowledge of classical texts than on copying ancient originals. They are, therefore, an important source for assessing other Neo-classical works of the 19th century, particularly, but not exclusively in Britain.The resources of the Centre have also contributed to the study of the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle; Sir John Boardman, Emeritus Professor at the Archive, was a joint author of Ancient and Modern Gems and Jewels in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen in 2008.
The Marlborough Collection of gems made by the Fourth Duke at Blenheim Palace in the later 18th century was dispersed at sale in 1899, but the Centre has a complete set of impressions and casts, acquired by Sir John Beazley from the family of Nevile Story-Maskelyne, who made them from the originals. This has enabled our research team to assemble a fully illustrated account of the whole collection, its origins and later history, which will be published by the Oxford University Press. Interest in gems and cameos extends from the objects to their collectors; they tell us about knowledge and taste. The collection and reception of engraved gems and cameos is a story that runs from antiquity to the present. It reflects on the reception of classical art in Britain, revealing the models for much of the most famous classicising arts from the Renaissance to the present day. Part of the Marlborough Collection was one owned by Lord Arundel in the 17th century, derived from the Gonzaga Dukes of Mantua, as important a source as the Medici at Florence. Arundel’s was one of the major collections in northern Europe. Other parts of the Marlborough Collection included works collected by foremost Italian and British scholars and collectors.
Figure 2
Detail of the painting by Joshua Reynolds (Blenheim Palace)
showing the Fourth Duke of Marlborough holding a cameo
portrait of the Emperor Augustus, now in Cologne
By following the fortunes of the gems to the present we can see how the interests and influence of collectors have influenced our scholarship and appreciation. This illustration (Fig. 2) shows a detail of Reynolds’ portrait of the family of the Fourth Duke of Marlborough. The Duke sits holding in his hand a cameo, while his son stands beside him holding one of the red boxes in which the gems were kept. The cameo itself had been acquired after the 1899 sale by Lord Astor, later by the Römisch-Germanisches Museum in Cologne, where it is now. We recognise it from a cast in the Archive and 19th- century photographs. It is an original Roman work showing a portrait of the Emperor Augustus, and its mount is Italian, of the later 16th century.
Our continuing study is devoted to other collections in Britain and elsewhere. We are also preparing for the web antiquarian publications of gems from the 16th century on, such as that by 17th –century antiquarian Gorlaeus.
The art of engraving gems and cameos has been long neglected, in both Classics and History of Art, yet it was one of the prime arts of antiquity, with a tradition that continues through the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, and down to the 19th century. Our research makes it more accessible to students and scholars because we exploit the potential of the web; gems are small and ‘zooming’ reveals the quality of the carving. These objects are a prime resource for the understanding of ancient art, the Renaissance, and of collecting.