Читать книгу Cameo Cutting онлайн

5 страница из 9

ssss1Partnership now dissolved.

The most celebrated Cameo engraver of modern times was Benedetto Pistrucci, who designed the “George and Dragon” of our coinage, which is acknowledged to be the finest work that has ever appeared in modern currency. Of himself he says that he was in a manner born to the work he took up from choice, and he mentions in proof of this that he had square thumbs, and the palm of his right hand was covered with horny skin. This had been a characteristic with certain of the males in the family for several generations. He was the son of a judge, and was born at Rome in May 1784. His eldest brother was a painter, and every member of the family was endowed with artistic tastes. Italy, in his youth, was overrun by the French, which caused his parents to make frequent changes of residence. At fourteen years of age, being then proficient in drawing, he was first put to a master, one Signor Mango, who, perceiving his genius, employed him to make designs for his Cameos. This provoked much jealousy among the other workmen, one of whom stabbed Benedetto with a dagger. During his illness he amused himself by modelling the figures he drew, and so perfected himself in the stages necessary for becoming a thorough artist; less than this in training will only make a workman. Upon his recovery he was sent to two masters in succession, the second of whom, noticing the superiority of his designs, exclaimed, “With one who has genius there is very little for a master to teach.” At sixteen years of age he began work on his own account; and, after a brief courtship, at eighteen years of age, married a girl of sixteen, of gentle family. There were born to them two daughters, Victoria and Eliza, and one son, Vincenzio. Eliza and her brother were endowed with the paternal characteristic, a horny palm, and became celebrated as workers in Cameo. At twenty-four years of age Benedetto had succeeded in establishing a reputation as an engraver of precious stones, having taught himself the process, and constructed with his own hands the wheel with which he worked. For several years he had sold Cameos worked in stones to one Angelo Bonelli, a travelling dealer in gems; and discovering one day that a specimen of his work had been stained to represent an antique, and sold for a high price, he resolved for the future to place a secret mark upon those he sold. On one of these, the head of Flora, he cut two Greek letters in the hair. The condition of Italy at that time induced him to consider the advantage of proceeding to England; but before emigrating he executed several orders for one of Napoleon’s sisters, one portrait being cut in stone, much smaller than a fly. Pistrucci brought to London a letter of introduction to Mr. Konig, mineralogist of the British Museum, and by Lord Fife he was introduced to Sir Joseph Banks. The latter afterwards introduced him to Mr. Payne Knight, who produced at their interview what he called the finest Greek Cameo in existence, a most choice gem, a fragment of the head of Flora, for which he had paid Bonelli 500 guineas. Pistrucci did not even take the stone from the extended palm of Mr. Knight; a glance disclosed the fact that it was that head of Flora in whose hair he had cut two Greek letters, and for which Bonelli had paid him £5. An unpleasant scene resulted. The letters were plainly visible; but Bonelli, realising that his trade was at an end, boldly denounced Pistrucci. He pointed to the wreath of flowers about the head in proof of his conceit that it was an antique, asserting that no such flowers were then in existence; but Sir Joseph Banks, examining them with a microscope, exclaimed, “The flowers are roses, as I am a botanist!” Pistrucci offered to carve another Flora exactly similar without looking again at the “antique.” This challenge was not accepted. Then it was agreed that he should cut a head of Flora in a different position, and this was accepted as a test of the truth of his representations. The story soon spread through London society; noblemen, scientific men, ladies of rank, watched the growth of the new Flora under the hands of Pistrucci, and when it was completed the dispute raged with increased bitterness, so that Payne Knight’s antique Flora became the question of the day. The controversy at length ended with universal expressions of sympathy for Mr. Payne Knight.ssss1