SUCCEEDING DECLINES AND REVIVALS.
Constant encouragement was given to this branch of art-industry throughout the fifteenth and part of the sixteenth century; but after the death of the Emperor Charles V., in 1558, recurred another period of decline. Private and royal accumulations of art works were again the victims of depredation; cabinets and museums were pillaged and scattered by military marauders, as one after another the great cities of the Continent of Europe were besieged and conquered.
The glyptic, of all the arts, was the most easily affected by the changing fortunes of nations.
These circumstances compelled artists to give their attention more particularly to church architecture, to the production of large devotional basso-rilievos for the altar, and sculptured figures, which, though representing sacred subjects, were often too voluptuous in form, and lacking the essential qualities of true art.
In the last twenty years of the eighteenth century gem-engraving received fresh impetus; new practitioners were enrolled from Germany, England, and France.
Some of these resided many years in England, pursuing their profession assiduously and profitably. In this period quantities of intaglios and cameos were reproduced from the most salable antique subjects. To supply the wants of enthusiastic amateurs frauds were freely committed, by close imitation, and the insertion of signatures of celebrated Greek and Roman engravers, though the age produced artists of the highest ability and honor.
The works of Natter, Sirletti, Pickler, Marchand, Pistrucci, Santarelli, and others come to us so directly from their hands that we feel they almost belong to our day, and we think of them as of acquaintances.
Many of the gems of Giovanni Pickler compare favorably with the finest incisions of the Greek, and even with the work of the renowned Dioscorides.