A set of three intaglios - a design, gure or ornament engraved or incised in stone or other hard material depressed below the surface so that an impression (seal) from the design yields an image in relief, as opposed to a design carved in relief, or cameo, two of them made from chalcedony, and one from lapis lazuli, set in silver gilt mounts enamelled in green and blue.1 Intended as appliqués, to be mounted on a support now lost, though probably a rich piece of furniture such as a casket, all three are mythological in character: one depicting a crowned, seated Jupiter with his primary sacred animal, the eagle; one other with a standing Cupid near a burning altar, holding an arrow and carrying his quiver; and the third one with a standing gure holding a staff. Judging from the engraving style, made with somewhat large ball-shaped and disc-shaped bits, it is possible that these intaglios were made in Germany, where a revival in intaglio production took place in the early seventeenth century. Similarly made intaglios are set in an early seventeenth-century south German enamelled gold ring in the British Museum, London (inv. AF.633). Intaglios, mostly from antiquity, were highly valued in the Renaissance, with some princely collectors going to great lengths to acquire the best examples for their exceptional craftsmanship. Being small objects for intimate contemplation, given their diminutive size, cameos and intaglios were not only valued for their artistry but also as a gateway to the past, serving as important vehicles of information on Greco-Roman society and as iconographic sources. Engraved and carved gemstones were seen as a vast repository of mythological themes and were commonly used by artists as models. It is well known that the painter Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), himself a collector of glyptic art, based some of his works on antique gems; during his training he had access to the collection of the Gonzaga, Dukes of Mantua and later to the Medici collection in Florence.2 Antique and contemporary carved and engraved gems were used not only to decorate the mounts of Milanese pietre dure vases in the sixteenth century, but also to completely cover caskets such as one example, featuring both antique and contemporary cameos and intaglios (152), made around 1630-1660, which belonged to Cardinal Jules Mazarin (1602-1661), and which subsequently became part of the collection of Louis, Grand Dauphin (1661-1711), and is now in the Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid (inv. O 32).3
1 Published in Nuno Vassallo e Silva, Pedro Bourbon de Aguiar Branco, Luxo, Poder e Devoção. Jóias do século XVI ao século XIX, Porto, V.O.C. Antiguidades, 2005, cat. 10, pp. 36-37.
2 See Marcia Pointon, “The importance of gems in the work of Peter Paul Rubens, 1577-
1640”, in B. J. L. van den Bercken, V. C. P. Baan (eds.), Engraved Gems. From antiquity to
the present, Leiden, Sidestone Press, 2017, pp. 99-111.
3 See Daniel Alcou e, “The Collection of Cardinal Mazarin`s Gems”, The Burlington
Magazine, 116.858, 1974, pp. 514, 516-526.