Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Study after an Antique Gem

Bernard Picart
1673-1733

Study after an Antique Gem

ca. 1722
8 5/8 x 5 13/16 inches (218 x 148 mm)
Red chalk on paper; framing line in black chalk.
1996.162

Bequest of Alice Tully.

Notes
This study is preparatory for an illustration in the Prussian antiquarian Baron Philipp von Stosch's Gemmae Antiquar Caelatae (Pierres antiques gravees), Amsterdam: 1724, plate LVIII. The volume contains 70 engravings by Picart after carved gems in various European collections. This study was based on a carved amethyst depicting a satyr's head in the Leoni Strozzi (1657-1722) collection in Rome.
Stosch himself amassed a collection of over 3000 gems which were documented in a celebrated 1760 catalogue by Johann Winckelmann. The crack in the gem's surface indicated by Picart reflects his close study and attention to the condition of the objects he was documenting.
Inscriptions/Markings
Inscribed in Greek, "SKULAKO" (partial inscription; transliterated); numbered at lower right, "16".
Associated names
Tully, Alice, 1902-1993, former owner.
Classification
Century Drawings
School
Department