“shield of Theodosius” at Madrid (fig. 9), which represents the emperor seated between Valentinian II. and Arcadius[1]; the “shield of Valentinian” at Geneva[2]; the “shield of Aspar” at Florence[3]; and a fine dish found at Aquileia, now at Vienna.[4]
The British Museum contains some fine specimens of late Roman silver work, found on the Esquiline in 1793 (cf. Visconti, Una Supellettile d'argento, Rome, 1825; the objects are published and described in Mr Dalton's Catalogue of the Early Christian Antiquities in the British Museum, pp. 61 sqq., pls. xiii.-xx.). The most remarkable of these are: (i.) a silver casket decorated in repoussé, with the inscription SECONDE ET PROJECTA VIVATIS IN CRISTO, doubtless a wedding gift to a couple bearing the names of Secundus and Projecta, whose portraits appear in a medallion on the centre of the lid; (ii.) four statuettes representing personified cities—Rome, Constantinople, Antioch and Alexandria (cf. P. Gardiner in J. H. S., 1888, ix. 77 sqq.). This treasure appears to belong in the main to the 5th century A.D., though some minor pieces may be earlier.
Bibliography.—A general account will be found in Smith's Dictionary of Antiquities, 3rd ed., s.v. “Caelatura” (without illustrations), and in Daremberg and Saglio's Dictionnaire des antiquités, under the same heading (with several cuts). The passages in ancient writers which reier to the art will be found in Oberbeck's Antike Schriftquellen Nos. 2167-2205; Pliny's account is most conveniently studied in K. Jex-Blake and E. Sellers, The Elder Pliny's Chapters on the History of Art, pp. 2 sqq. The finds made in southern Russia were published in the Antiquités du Bosphore cimmérien (Sr Petersburg, 1854); the Comptes rendus de la commission impériale (St Petersburg, 1859 sqq.); and the Recueil des antiquités de la Scythie (1866-1873). The first of these works, which is very rare, has been republished on a reduced scale by M. Salomon Reinach, in his Bibliothèque des monuments figurés (Paris, 1892) with notes; and all the more important objects are figured in Antiquités de la Russie méridionale, by Kondakoff, Tolstoy and Reinach (Paris, 1891-1892). For Graeco-Roman plate the most important works are Héron de Villefosse's publication of the Bosco Reale treasure in the Monuments Piot, vol. v. (cf. the articles by the same author and M. Thédenat on “Les Trésors de vaisselle d'argent trouvés en Gaule,” Gazette archéologique, 1883-1884) and Der hildesheimer Silberfund, by E. Pernice and F. Winter (Berlin, 1901). Reference should also be made to T. Schreiber, “Die alexandrinische Toreutik,” (Abhandlungen der sachs. Gesellsch. der Wissenschaften, 1894, vol. xiv.), whose theories are somewhat exaggerated; and A. Odobescu, Le Trésor de Petrossa (1889-1900), which deals with a find of barbaric plate and jewelry made in Rumania, but gives much information on the history of the art. For early Greek work, see R. Schneider, “Goldtypen des griechischen Ostens,” Berichte der sachs. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften (1891, p. 204), and A. Furtwangler, Der Goldfund von Vettersfelde (1883). For Etruscan metal-work, see J. Martha, L'Art étrusque, ch. xvii. An interesting popular account of ancient work in precious metals will be found in E. T. Cook's Popular Handbook to the Greek and Roman Antiquities in the British Museum, pp. 569 sqq.
Oriental, African Plate, &c.—Some very curious pieces of plate, both in gold and in silver, have been found in northern India in which country the goldsmith's art is of great antiquity;[5] these appear to be of native workmanship, but the subjects with which they are embossed, and the modelling of the figures, show that they were produced under late Roman influence, or in some cases possibly even Greek influence in a highly degraded state, handed down from the time of Alexander's Indian conquests. A fine gold casket (Buddhist relic) said to date from about 50 B.C. is worthy of note.[6] In the British Museum are an Indian silver dish (3rd-4th century A.D.)[7] and an earlier one, ascribed to c. A.D. 200.
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Fig. 10.—Sassanian Gold Bottle, about 10 in. high. In the Vienna Museum. |
Under the Sassanian kings of Persia (from the 3rd to 6th centuries) very massive and richly decorated gold vases, bowls, and bottles were made (fig. 10). Those which still exist show a curious mingling of ancient Assyrian art with that of Rome in its decline. Reliefs representing winged lions, or the sacred tree between its attendant beasts alternate with subjects from Roman mythology, such as the rape of Ganymede; but all are treated alike with much originality, and in a highly decorative manner. A fine example of Persian work of the early 19th century (dated 1817) is the circular gold dish, richly enamelled, which is in the Victoria and Albert Museum, where a large collection of Oriental plate may be studied. Here may be seen a gold rose-water sprinkler of gold, entirely covered with richly enamelled flowers, Mogul work, 17th century; fine Burmese gold work found in A.D. 1484-1485 in a Buddhist temple, Rangoon; remarkable gold ornaments of the Burmese regalia; and a large elephant howdah, from the Punjab, made of silver, parcel gilt, the top covered with silver plates of large repoussé foliage. Tibetan craftsmen work is represented by numerous vessels for sacred and domestic purposes, mostly of metal, partially mounted in silver, which display the skill of the Tibetans in the 19th century. Of the skill of the Hindus as goldsmiths, abundant evidence is afforded by the Ramayana and Mahābhārata, though very little of their ancient gold and silver work has survived. In India the people of the Cashmere valley have long been famous for their natural superiority as craftsmen, as was Lucknow for its utensils of gold and silver, much of it richly enamelled in the 18th and 19th centuries. Chanda in the Central Provinces was once celebrated for its skilled goldsmiths, and the plate of Cutch and Gujarat in the Bombay Presidency has enjoyed a well-deserved reputation. The uncontaminated indigenous designs of the Sind goldsmiths' work call for special notice. Indian plate, as is quite natural, has often been influenced by European designs: for instance, the beautiful gold and silver work of Cutch is Dutch in origin, while the ornate throne of wood covered with plates of gold, early 19th century, used by Ranjit Singh (at South Kensington) also displays European influence. Much of the Siamese decorative plate of the 18th and 19th centuries is of silver-gilt and nielloed. In the Rijks museum, Amsterdam, is a collection of silver dishes, boxes of gold and silver, jewelry, &c., all of excellent workmanship, from Lombok. African goldsmiths' work is represented in the British Museum by the gold ornaments from Ashanti, where there are also some gold ornaments from graves in Central America and Colombia. Ancient Abyssinian work can be studied at the Victoria and Albert Museum in the gold chalice, gold crown of the Abuna of Abyssinia, another more ornate crown of silver-gilt, a fine shield with silver-gilt filigree, and other objects.
The gold and silver work of Russia resembles in style that of Byzantium at an early period. Shrines and other magnificent pieces of plate in the treasury of the cathedral at Moscow (see Weltmann, Le Trésor de Moscou, 1861), though executed at the end of the 15th and 16th century, are similar in design to Byzantine work of the 11th or 12th century, and even since then but little change or development of style has taken place.
The caliphs of Bagdad, the sultans of Egypt, and other Moslem rulers were once famed for their rich stores of plate,
- ↑ Cf. E. Hubner, Die antiken Bildwerke in Madrid, pp. 213 sqq.
- ↑ A. Odobescu, Le Trésor de Petrossa, pp. 153 sqq., fig. 68.
- ↑ D. Bracci, Dissertazione sopra un clipeo votivo (Lucca, 1771).
- ↑ See R. v. Schneider, Album auserlesenster Gegenstande der Antikensammlung des allerhöchsten Kaiserhauses (1895); and cf. Verhandlungen der 42. Versammlung deutscher Philologen (1893), pp. 297 sqq.
- ↑ Sir G. Birdwood, Industrial Arts of India (1880).
- ↑ Wilson's Arcana antiqua (1841).
- ↑ Archaeologie, lv. 534.
