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Ajax
Unknown - Enlarge image
Ajax
- Object:
Cameo
- Place of origin:
Italy (made)
- Date:
ca. 1800 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
Unknown (maker)
- Materials and Techniques:
Engraved gemstone
- Credit Line:
Townshend Bequest
- Museum number:
1797-1869
- Gallery location:
Sculpture, room 111, case 2
The art of engraving gemstones can be traced back to ancient Greece in the 8th century BC and earlier. Techniques passed down to the Egyptians and then to the Romans. There were major revivals of interest in engraved gems in Europe during the Byantine era, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and again in the 18th and 19th centuries. At each stage cameos and intaglios, these skillful carvings on a minute scale, were much prized and collected, sometimes as symbols of power mounted in jewelled settings, sometimes as small objects for private devotion or enjoyment. This gem is in the neo-classical style popular in the late 1700s and early 1800s, when taste in the arts echoed the subject matter and style of the Greek and Roman masters. Thousands of gems were made in this style in Italy and brought back by British Grand Tourists, who went there to visit the newly-discovered classical antiquities and archaeological sites. In Greek mythology, the great warrior Ajax was one of the heroes of Agamemnon's army in the Iliad, the account by Homer of the Trojan war. He is frequently shown helmeted, and carrying his great shield, which was said to have been made from seven cow hides covered with a layer of bronze. After they had together won the body of Achilles back from the Trojans, Ajax lost a contest with Odysseus to lay claim to the great hero's magic armour, forged by Haphaestus the armourer of the gods. In his sorrow Ajax went mad, and killed himself. The cameo is signed in what appear to be Greek characters, but the signature is not recognisable as that of a known engraver, and is probably an invention intended to give the gem an added air of classical antiquity.
