gems, glyptic, engraved gems, agate, cameo, intaglio, seals, cylinders

Study in the Visual Arts sponsored a symposium devoted to “Engraved Gems: Survivals and Revivals.” This volume derives from sixteen papers that were delivered in that symposium at the National Gallery of Art. The symposium on engraved gems was the third in a series of five planned meetings on Italian bronzes, the first in 1984 on medals and the second in 1985 on plaquettes. The proceedings of these symposia were subsequently published as volumes of Studies in the History of Art. This symposium was planned to address the diverse influences of Greek and Roman gems that provided a flexible springboard for painters, sculptors, and gem engravers in postclassical periods. Topics included the altered functions of gems (religious, magical, medicinal, political) in the Middle Ages, the borrowings made in the Renaissance, and their roles as exemplars in the technical evolution of gem carving. Discussion was intended to encompass social, political, economic, and aesthetic environments of collecting in those periods, and the copies, pastes, casts, and adaptations made after gems. Sessions focused on classical precedents and medieval revivals, collecting gems in the Renaissance and baroque periods, and the transition into later periods.