The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-03-20
CAMEO MAKERS
 POTENT MAGIC
Legends and History Beautifully Recorded
 By Cameo Artists.

To select a shape1ess block of flint i with a wrinkled skin, to trim it, to l smooth and polish it from the most 1 propitious surface, to examine with soIicitous attention the different seams |
 of muIticolored stone and, ava1l1ns one self of this dazzling palette, ob- stinately, bit by bit, grain by graln' 1 particle by particle, to work this stone l which so grudgingly surrenders it's treasure, until masterpiece emerges, i in it's beauty wing with the work of nature in this tournament between matter and man-such is the ttantic and minute labor of lithoglyphe- This is the work which, following the Egyptians and Assyrians, the Greek engravers, Phrygi1les, Discor- ides, Onates, -Pyrogoteles performed with slender blunt instruments, in the points of which were 1nlald d1a- mond or emerald fragments which permitted the tools to cut into the | gems; for, says the Hindu proverb:
 'eThe vajra (diamond9 cannot be cut
 bv any stone, but itself cuts all l others,'' and it is by almost the same process that the extremely few adopts 1 of an art so difficult. and so tedious i the Tonnelliers or the Lemaires ot l our day treat the splendid and re- i fractory stones.
 l Our national collection of cameos l are the result of this persistent task 1 At the cost of labor such as this the 1 unknown authors of the Ptolemaic cup, of the imperial portraits, of the royal jewels in the collection which | makes up the incomparable treasure
 of the Cabinet de France, have left us | i'm perisha ble works which, more than l paintings more than statues or tenn
 ples, more even than coins, are pre-
 sented to us in the unchangeable
 charm of their youth and steadfast
 beauty which centuries will not mar
 Many have immorta1ized the fea- lures of famous personages whose his
 tory, familiar to every one, becomes
 singularly vivid when thus illustrated. ; The series of the Roman emperors
 and the members of their families is abun undant-Diana, Hercules, Venus, l and Adonis also figure on the master , pieces of the lapidaries-
 5 The subjects of our cameos capti- i vate our imagination as their beauty charms our eyes. This history of each l of them is as charming a legend. It is this which gives incompatible value to the great cameo of Sainte ChapelIe, the greatest engraved stone . which antiquity has bequeathed to us. , This represents Germanicus, i1lustri- f i ouss in the war against Arminus and : the Germans, making obeisance before . Tiberius, his adopted father, at the
 moment of departure for the Parthian
 War.
 r After having formed a part of the
 treasures of the Caesars, then of the
 1 Byzantine enperors, the great cameo was pledged to Saint Louis in 1247 by al Emperor Baldwin II, who, hard i pressed by the infdels, was turning : i everything into money in order to !, obtain soldiers. Thus the jewel took
 it's place among the relics of Sainte
 ChapeIle. The great cameo, when held U as a, relic, was supposed to have rep Fl resented the triumph of Joseph at the t court of Pharaoh.
 Il But there are still more picturesque Il examples of fantastic attribution, ac I cording to which we find Venuse. : and Ledas. on the cameos; receivinE c the homage due to madonnas, Roman 0 emperors n1iscalled St. Peter; and ont e medal, for example, represeting Julia e the daughter of Titus, adorns tn, g prie-dieu of Charlemagne.
 3. The dispute of Minerva and Nep
 tune, struggling for the possession O 'f Attica, a sufficiently characteristic l, legend, became, as recorded on tn, 70 cameos a representation of the Ter 1T restia1 Paradise, showing the seem
 of the temptation of Adam and Eve
 Certain detai1s,- however, proved to
 great a. strain on the imagination d and in the reign of Charles VI, prob g ably, the cameo was given to an en d graver who removed Neptune's tri m dent, retouched his cloak, placed a, C. apple in his hand and took Minerva e lance away from her. Minerva's hel
 met gave place to tawny curls, tn 'n olive tree became an apple tree, Min Of erva's owl was hidden in the branche J. while, in the space below the desig1 ie the kid and the serpent Erichtonio
 were joined by other beasts and rep I'd tiles from Paradise.
 ek Alongside of the names of the mos he celebrated 1apidaries of olden time e. may well be placed cnose or some ( L1- our contemporaries Ga
 bronner, Tonnellier, Hildebrand, Cat 1T lard, or Lemaire. In spite of thet d. noble efforts and their triumphs, how II. ever, the cameo engraver's art barel he exists, distained by fashion. But g d. to the national library, where the ar
 cient Cabinet de Roi has recantl