Embarrassing Gems
Bern in Switzerland has recently received a valuable collection of engraved gems, donated by Leo Merz (1869-1952), a lawyer, to his home town. The sources from which he obtained the objects vary enormously: Sir Arthur Evans, the excavator of Knossoss, provided some, others have come from the Cook collection, the Guilhou ring collection and the Fustenberg collection. One sardonyx cameo, which depicts the Emperor Claudius, was found decorating a reliquary belonging to Rene I, Duke of Anjou.
The collection includes a few Greek gems, one of which shows a flying dove and bears the name of the famous engraver Dexamenos. Other gems come from the Roman period, both Republican and Imperial, and one or two may even date to the time of the Etruscans.
The problem with studying these objects is their small size: one is constantly amazed at the skill of the ancient craftsmen in working a piece of stone no more than half an inch long to depict such detailed and finely worked pictures that may show a man on a rearing horse, a pair of lovers, Leda and her swan or Apollo playing his lyre.
Many of these gems appear to have been preserved in use since their first creation rather than being recovered from archaeological excavations. A fine sardonyx intaglio with the bust of the Roman emperor Caracalla has been recut on the reverse with a depiction of the Three Magi. The Caracalla is probably roughly contemporary - he was such a notoriously bad emperor that it is highly unlikely anyone after him would wish to preserve his image - while the Magi date to around 1500 AD.
Another cameo which can be linked - speciously, at least - with historical events is the rather suggestive scene of Leda and the swan, which dates to around AD 200 when Bishop Clement of Alexandria warned his flock against wearing or owning objects showing sexually explicit scenes, on the grounds that they inflamed the lusts of the flesh and warred against the soul. Certainly in an age that lacked Playboy and its ilk, such objects must have caused many an embarrassed titter.
