page_title: Onyx
section_title: Historic use
hierarchical_section_title: Onyx / Historic use
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Kameo: Gemma Augustea. Römisch, Frühe Kaiserzeit. 9 - 12 n. Chr. Onyx, zweischichtig. Fassung: Goldreif, Hinterseite in ornamentierter Durchbruchsarbeit, 17. Jh. H. 19 cm, B. 23 cm. Inv.-Nr. ANSA_IXa_79. Fundort: Unbekannt. Provenienz: Schatzkammer; seit dem 17. Jh. in kaiserlichem Besitz; 1779 Übernahme. English: Gemma Augustea, a depiction of Emperor Augustus surrounded by goddesses and allegories. Collection of Greek and Roman Antiquities in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. Roman, 9-12 CE. Two-Layered onyx. H: 19 cm. Setting: gold frame, reverse side in ornamented open-work; German, 17th century. AS Inv. No. IX A 79.
context_page_description: Onyx primarily refers to the parallel banded variety of the silicate mineral chalcedony. Agate and onyx are both varieties of layered chalcedony that differ only in the form of the bands: agate has curved bands and onyx has parallel bands. The colors of its bands range from black to almost every color. Commonly, specimens of onyx contain bands of black and/or white. Onyx, as a descriptive term, has also been applied to parallel banded varieties of alabaster, marble, obsidian and opal, and misleadingly to materials with contorted banding, such as "Cave Onyx" and "Mexican Onyx".
context_section_description: It has a long history of use for hardstone carving and jewelry, where it is usually cut as a cabochon or into beads. It has also been used for intaglio and hardstone cameo engraved gems, where the bands make the image contrast with the ground. Some onyx is natural but much of the material in commerce is produced by the staining of agate.
  Onyx was used in Egypt as early as the Second Dynasty to make bowls and other pottery items. Use of sardonyx appears in the art of Minoan Crete, notably from the archaeological recoveries at Knossos.
  Brazilian green onyx was often used as plinths for art deco sculptures created in the 1920s and 1930s. The German sculptor Ferdinand Preiss used Brazilian green onyx for the base on the majority of his chryselephantine sculptures. Green onyx was also used for trays and pin dishes – produced mainly in Austria – often with small bronze animals or figures attached.
  Onyx is mentioned in the Bible many times. Sardonyx (onyx in which white layers alternate with sard - a brownish color) is mentioned in the Bible as well.
  Onyx was known to the Ancient Greeks and Romans. The first-century naturalist Pliny the Elder described both type of onyx and various artificial treatment techniques in his Naturalis Historia.
  Slabs of onyx (from the Atlas Mountains) were famously used by Mies van der Rohe in Villa Tugendhat at Brno (completed 1930)  to create a shimmering semi-translucent interior wall.
  The Hôtel de la Païva in Paris is noted for its yellow onyx décor, and the new Mariinsky Theatre Second Stage in St.Petersburg uses yellow onyx in the lobby.
caption: The Gemma Augustea is a Roman cameo produced 9–12 AD and carved in a two-layered onyx gem (19 × 23 cm)
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