The Empress Catherine II., wishing to confer a great favor and special reward on an ambassador to her court from her remarkable collection in the Museum of the Hermitage at St. Petersburg, presented this antique gem to him in 1785. Twenty-five years afterwards, at his death in Greece, it was sold, and was piously guarded during thirty years by a collector in the Hellenic peninsula. After that it became the property of Bieler in Styria.
I came into possession of this remarkable gem after more than five years’ negotiations with its owner, and subsequently with his heirs.
It is a cameo of great importance in itself. Prof. C. W. King, of Trinity College, Cambridge, England, said, “It is by far the most important of all similar works of the Lower Empire hitherto published.”
It is of very considerable dimensions (6 × 4 inches), being the eleventh in point of magnitude of those already existing in any cabinet. It is a maculated sard, dark-reddish amber color, with slight white, dark sepia, and burnt sienna spots or maculation.
The subject is a Triumph of Constantine. This portrait of that Byzantine Emperor is considered very faithful. As I have often remarked in connection with the numismatic phase of my subject, we can in this case establish the likeness of Constantine by confronting it with the fine gold coins of his realm and reign.
Among the auxiliary figures on the gem is Constantine’s mother Helena, she who found the true cross; also Crispus his son, and his wife Fausta.
The Emperor is being crowned by a Victory, who stands behind him borne in a triumphal car, the four horses walking and led by a soldier in front. Constantine holds the reins in his left hand, but in his right a roll of paper (volumen), instead of the customary eagle-tipped sceptre.
In the front of the group is a standard inscribed “S. P. Q. R.,” the bearer of the staff being concealed by the horses of the car; as are also the lictors, whose fasces are seen elevated in the air above the horses’ backs, in the upper field of the composition. Behind the car stands Crispus and Fausta, both in front face; Crispus is pointing to the labarum, and evidently relating to Fausta all the circumstances of its introduction into the scene. At the opposite end of the gem stands Helena, who, with the soldier leading the quadriga, forms a balance to the other pair.
Much labor and skill have been expended by the artist upon the face of the triumphing Cæsar, in order to leave no doubt as to his identity, and with such success that the well-known Augustus-like profile of Constantine may be recognized at the first glance.