Herophilos (gem cutter)

the cameo signed by Herophilos

Herophilos ( ancient Greek Ήρόφιλος ) was an ancient Greek stone cutter . He worked in the most important gem workshop of the late Roman Republic and the early Imperial Era .

Herophilos was the son of the most important stone cutter of his time, Dioscorides , and thus also the brother of Eutyches and Hyllos . He worked in his father's workshop and was probably trained by him too, and he is very close to him stylistically. One work has survived that he signed in the genitive and that is also named by his father . This cameo made of blue glass was kept in the Echternach monastery until the 17th century and is now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna . While the depiction is largely undisputed as a member of the Julio-Claudian house due to the physiognomy of the sitter and the laurel wreath , the specific name is controversial. Marie-Louise Vollenweider believes in a portrayal of Augustus , Erika Zwierlein-Diehl assumes it is Drusus , and Adolf Furtwängler and Peter Zazoff assume a Tiberius portrait. In any case, the gem shows a first-class mastery of the craft.

literature

• Herbert Marwitz : Herophilos 2. In: The Little Pauly (KlP). Volume 2, Stuttgart 1967, column 1110.
• Simone Michel : Herophilos [2]. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 5, Metzler, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-476-01475-4 , Sp. 486.
• Britta Gerring: Herophilos. In: Rainer Vollkommer (editor): Künstlerlexikon der Antike . Over 3800 artists from three millennia. Nikol, Hamburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-937872-53-7 , p. 315.

Web links

Commons : Herophilos  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

1. ↑ Inventory number IXa 30.
2. ^ Marie-Louise Vollenweider: The stone cutting art and its artists in the late Republican and Augustan times. Grimm, Baden-Baden 1966, p. 65, note 1–2, plate 69.1.
3. ↑ Erika Zwierlein-Diehl: The Divus-Augustus-Kameo in Cologne. In: Cologne yearbook for prehistory and early history. Volume 17, 1980, pp. 12-53.
4. ↑ Adolf Furtwängler: The ancient gems. History of stone cutting art in classical antiquity. Volume 3, Giesecke & Devrient, Leipzig and others 1900, p. 319 ( digitized version ).
5. ^ Father Zazoff: The ancient gems (= manual of archeology ). CH Beck, Munich 1983, ISBN 3-406-08896-1 , p. 316, note 58, plate 91.1.