Gaios (gem cutter)
Gaios ( Greek Γαῖος ) was a Greek gem cutter who worked in the 1st century BC. Was active.
plant
Only one garnet from Gaios has survived , in which the head of the dog Sirius is carved; due to the great depth of the cut, the head appears to protrude almost freely from the relief ground. The stone is considered a masterpiece of deep-cut, as the bluish shimmer of the red garnet comes out on the dog's snout, making it appear moist. When looking at it, it appears “alive, as it were, the head seems to move back and forth, the open mouth, in which the tongue and teeth are visible, to move up and down.” The dog wears the spiked collar of a shepherd dog, the spines of which frame the head like rays . The artist's signature is added to the collar with the addition ΕΠΟΙΕΙ ( epoiei , "made by").
The stone is in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston .
The gem cutter Lorenz Natter copied the Sirius head in his work, trying to reproduce the ancient technique.
literature
- Britta Gerring: Gaios (I) . In: Rainer Vollkommer (Hrsg.): Künstlerlexikon der Antike . Over 3800 artists from three millennia. Nikol, Hamburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-937872-53-7 , p. 261.
- Otto Rossbach : Gaios 5). In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume VII, 1, Stuttgart 1910, Col. 487 f.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Erika Zwierlein-Diehl: Ancient gems and their afterlife . De Gruyter, Berlin 2007, ISBN 3110194503 , p. 77.
- ↑ Illustration and provenance
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Gaios |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Γαῖος (Greek) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Greek stone cutter |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 2nd century BC BC or 1st century BC Chr. |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1st century BC BC or 1st century |