| Pliny the Elder, Natural History (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose] [word count] [lemma count] [Plin. Nat.]. | ||
| <<Plin. Nat. 33.54 | Plin. Nat. 33.55 (Latin) | >>Plin. Nat. 33.56 |
It is a remarkable fact that the art of chasing gold should have conferred no celebrity upon any person, while that of embossing silver has rendered many illustrious. The greatest renown, however, has been acquired by Mentor, of whom mention has been made already. [Note] Four pairs [of vases] were all that were ever [Note] made by him; and at the present day, not one of these, it is said, is any longer in existence, owing to the conflagrations of the Temple of Diana at Ephesus and of that in the Capitol. [Note] Varro informs us in his writings that he also was in possession of a bronze statue, the work of this artist. Next to Mentor, the most admired artists were Acra-
gas, [Note] Boëthus, [Note] and Mys. [Note] Works of all these artists are still extant in the Isle of Rhodes; of Boëthus, in the Temple of Minerva, at Lindus; of Acragas, in the Temple of Father Liber, at Rhodes, consisting of cups engraved with figures in relief of Centaurs and Bacchantes; and of Mys, in the same temple, figures of Sileni and Cupids. Representations also of the chase by Acragas on drinking cups were held in high estimation.
Next to these in repute comes Calamis. [Note] Antipater [Note] too, it has been said, laid, rather than engraved, [Note] a Sleeping Satyr upon a drinking-bowl. [Note] Next to these come Stratonicus [Note] of Cyzicus, and Tauriscus: [Note] Ariston [Note] also, and Eunicus, [Note] of Mytilene are highly praised; Hecatæus [Note] also, and, about the age of Pompeius Magnus, Pasiteles, [Note] Posidonius [Note] of Ephesus, Hedystratides [Note] who engraved battle-scenes and armed warriors, and Zopyrus, [Note] who represented the Court of the Areopa-
gus and the trial of Orestes, [Note] upon two cups valued at twelve thousand sesterces. There was Pytheas [Note] also, a work of whose sold at the rate of ten thousand denarii for two ounces: it was a drinking-bowl, the figures on which represented Ulysses and Diomedes stealing the Palladium. [Note] The same artist engraved also, upon some small drinking-vessels, kitchen scenes, [Note] known as "magiriscia;" [Note] of such remarkably fine workmanship and so liable to injury, that it was quite impossible to take copies [Note] of them. Teucer too, the inlayer, [Note] enjoyed a great reputation.
All at once, however, this art became so lost in point of excellence, that at the present day ancient specimens are the only ones at all valued; and only those pieces of plate are held in esteem the designs on which are so much worn that the figures cannot be distinguished.
Silver becomes tainted by the contact of mineral waters, and of the salt exhalations from them, as in the interior of Spain, for instance.
| Pliny the Elder, Natural History (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose] [word count] [lemma count] [Plin. Nat.]. | ||
| <<Plin. Nat. 33.54 | Plin. Nat. 33.55 (Latin) | >>Plin. Nat. 33.56 |
