Alcune considerazioni sulla glittica post-antica: la cosiddetta «produzione dei lapislazzuli»

Gabriella Tassinari,

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Abstract

The well-known lapis lazuli set of gems, called “lapis lazuli workshop”, is a group of mass-produced gems, carnelians, agates and especially lapis lazulis, not attributed, often of low quality, engraved in sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Their subjects and style may have been inspired by gems of the later Roman Empire; therefore they are frequently confused with ancient specimens. The output of these gems has been huge; one finds many such gems in each public and private collection; however most of them are yet unpublished. The question as to the provenance of the lapis lazuli group is not yet satisfactorily answered. The lapis gems with figures and those with heads were cut in the same workshops; the recurrent characteristics and the similarity of many products (they can be divided in some groups with a uniform style) points to a limited number of workshops situated in proximity to one another. Most scholars think that likely these gems come from somewhere in northern Italy, particularly Venice or Milan.