- chapter 51: Engraved gems –
of the fi gures on other gems in the group exhibit a mannered, linear drapery. Apart
from the group’s name piece and two compositions with two and three fi gures
depicting the arming of Achilles by Thetis and Hephaistos/Sethlans, these early
archaic gem devices show single fi gures: Hermes/Turms, Achilles, unidentifi ed youths
and a female fi gure.^17 The works attributed to the Boston Master exhibit close stylistic
affi nities with three scarab gems found at Uşak in modern Turkey, suggesting links
with workshops active in this part of the ancient world.^18 Even if he seems to have
had no close followers, this master-engraver can be said to mark the beginning of the
Etruscan production.
Another characteristic group of Archaic gems consists of representations of the
armed Athena/Menrva and the occasional Zeus/Tinia in a similar compositional
schema. These works were probably produced slightly later than those of the Boston
Master, one of them was found in a tomb at Populonia with black-fi gured vases dated
circa 500 bce.^19 Gods (Fig. 51.6), warriors and hero-fi gures from Greek myth were
favored by the engravers and their patrons, who adapted them to suit their own
specifi c needs for self-representation, protection etc. Female fi gures, mostly goddesses
like Athena, Thetis, and Artemis/Artumes, constitute a relatively large group in
the Archaic period, after which they virtually disappear from the glyptic material.
Animals and monsters are conspicuously absent from the early glyptic repertory, as
are satyrs and maenads. The gem-engravers of the Archaic period were infl uenced by
the work of other artists active in Etruria and by imported Greek black- and early
red-fi gure vase-painting.^20 The scarabs are all small in size, with meticulously carved
beetles and intaglio devices. The beetles usually have small, decorated winglets in
the upper exterior corners of the wings, and whiskered legs carved in relief. Some late
archaic scarabs have decorated plinths.
Figure 51.6 Cornelian scarab. Hermes/Turms, circa 500 bce. Copenhagen, National Museum of
Denmark, Collection of Near Eastern and Classical Antiquities, inv. 2267. Photo Ulf R. Hansson,
courtesy of the National Museum of Denmark.