The seduction of gems between history and collectionism

It is now available on the YouTube channel of Fondazione Luigi Rovati the video of the presentation of the new book by Gemma Sena Chiesa: Ancient gems: art luxury power (Carocci editore).

4 April 2024 - Fondazione Luigi Rovati

The seduction of gems between history and collectionism

This volume traces the history of a rare and sophisticated art form that arose in the classical world and is known today as glyptics. In the Hellenistic age worked gems and cameos engraved with portraits or symbols were used for personal propaganda by kings and famous people and made by craftsmen who signed their works. After the end of the Hellenistic kingdoms many of them moved to Rome in the service of the new powerful. Famous artists such as Dioscurides worked for Caesar, Augustus and his descendants, creating works of extraordinary quality. From the first century AD the custom of wearing a gemstone on the finger spread to the working classes and the army, giving rise to a larger and therefore less expensive production. In the restless late antique age gems with magical and Christian figurations began to circulate. From the fifth century many prestigious specimens passed from the imperial treasury to churches and then became collector's items to this day.

Gemma Sena Chiesa is professor emerita of Classical Archaeology at the University of Milan, author of numerous publications and major exhibitions. For the past fifty years she has been working on carved gems from the Roman period, of which she is an internationally renowned scholar.