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Techniques for CollectorsThe glyptic (hack gems)

5th Mar 2013 20:00 UTCFerdinando Giovine

The glyptic is the art of hack gems to get cameos, intaglios, seals or other decorative items large and small. Widespread in the classical Era (Greeks, Etruscans, Romans ...) had a revival in the Florentine Renaissance.

I visited at the end of 2012 that is the finest Italian Museum collection of classical glyptic, especially Roman, but that overall the collection spans 5,000 years at the Capitoline museums in Rome and I could buy the exhibition catalogue "La glittica Santarelli ai Musei Capitolini, Artemide Ed. (2012) pp 1-415"

I add here an interesting pdf on Roman glyptic in Tunisia

http://eprints.uniss.it/5846/1/Cicu_E_Gemme_romane_della_Tunisia.pdf

5th Mar 2013 21:26 UTCPaul Brandes 🌟 Manager

Along those same lines, the Medici of Florence funded the numerous workshops and artisans of the area which created some fantastic cameos, intaglios, and other gemmy artwork. Currently, their craftsmanship is on display at the Houston Museum of Natural Science until March 31, then it moves to another museum.

6th Mar 2013 09:26 UTCFerdinando Giovine

nice news! :-)

6th Mar 2013 15:14 UTCKelly Nash 🌟 Expert

This is interesting, Ferdinando. I think a better English word to describe the work would be "carved gems". "Hack" is more like what one would do with an axe.

6th Mar 2013 17:19 UTCFerdinando Giovine

Thank you Kelly. I use only a Collins for traslate. I know my English is very bad and the Italian have very more words (or vocabuls?) that are difficult to traslate.

If carved is better can a manager change the title?

I have only tried to open a interesting topic of gemmology since no one has written in Mindat ;-)

6th Mar 2013 21:36 UTCKelly Nash 🌟 Expert

Well, I feel bad correcting your English, because it is much better than my Italian.