| Engraved Gems |
 Diomedes gem This beautiful glass intaglio is cast from one of a series of gems of the same subject, the most famous of which is the Dukes of Devonshire collection at Chatsworth House. This example has the signature of Dioscurides, who was the gem engraver for Augustus, and the impression, see below, from the Tassie cabinet, according to the catalogue by Raspe, belonged to the King of France in the late 18th Century. The subject of the gem is Diomedes, shown nude leaping over a wall with a dead priest below him, holding in one hand a sword, the other bears the Palladium, and before Diomedes is a statue of a god on a column, whose back is to us so as to not witness the desecration of the temple, next to which is the signature of Dioscurides. In the Trojan War, it was said that Troy could not fall so long as the Palladium remained within its walls. The Palladium was a wooden statue of Pallas , another name for Athena, that was said to have fallen from the heavens at the founding of the city and was of enormous antiquity and very simple in design. The myth had importance to the Romans because they believed that the Trojan Palladium had been brought to Rome by Aeneas when he fled the fall of Troy, and it was kept in the Temple of Vesta in the Roman Forum, as one of the central sacred objects of Rome. This glass cast may well be ancient, it is thin, has bubbles and does not appear like the casts from the 18th Century, done by Tassie and others. And the Romans did make glass casts of their gems, which look much like this.  Tassie impression, Raspe number 9388, Beazley Archives.
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