simcoe/ART

"Gemma Augustea" (10-30 CE), Roman

A few semesters ago, I took an introductory course on Roman art & archaeology. From amidst the floor plans of Etruscan temple form and studies of the orders of ancient columns, dropped a quick study of this piece, the Gemma Augustea (or Gem of Augustus). Named for the first Roman emperor, whom we see seated and holding a staff in the upper half of the cameo, this work is one of the most flawless and undamaged works of art to come down to us from the ancient world.

Created by Augustus’ favorite gem cutter, Dioscurides, the gem is a celebration, in an idealized form of the glory of the emperor and shows him in his rightful place – in the company of the gods. The goddess sitting next to him is Roma, the deification of the golden city itself, while the deity holding the laurel wreath above his head is Oikoumene, goddess of civilization. Additionally, we see Neptune (Poseidon, Gk.) on the far left and Victoria (Nike, Gk.) on the righ riding her chariot. On the bottom of the stone are displayed human spoils of war (i.e. slaves) on the left while on the right side are Roman soldiers raising a victory standard or monument – both symbols of Rome’s true military might in this Pax Romana.

As art, the ancient craft of cameo making is one of nerve-wracking precision. Onyx, the stone from which the Gemma is made is a flat stone with multicolored strata – dark on the bottom moving to an alabaster, almost opaque layer on its top. The gem cutter would start carefully carving from the top, negatively defining the figures by cutting into the rock at different depths. The deeper down he would cut, the more the dark layer would show through giving it a fuller depth. Or, by barely cutting into the white surface, this would give the appearance of immediacy and foreground. This art form lasted for thousands of years, finding popularity again from the 18^th to early 20^th centuries in the form of silhouette portraits for the aristocracy and for the trend setters of the time.