Page:A History of Art in Chaldæa & Assyria Vol 2.djvu/289

 Gems. 257 The practical requirements of the Mesopotamians were satisfied with a hasty impression from their seals, but we must be more difficult to please. Before we can study the cylinder with any completeness we must have an impression in which no detail of the intaglio is omitted ; such a proof is to be obtained by Fig. 134. — Cylinder with ancient bronze mount : from Soldi. Fig. 135. — Cylinder and attachment in one : from Soldi. a complete turn of the cylinder upon some very plastic material, such as modelling-wax, or fine and carefully mixed plaster-of-Paris. The operation requires considerable skill. When it is well per- formed it results in a minute bas-relief, a flat projection, in reverse, of the whole intaglio. The subject represented and its execution Fig. 136. — Chaldrean cylinder ; from Menant. m/tw Fig. 137.— Impression from the same cylinder. can be much better seen in a proof like this than on the original object, it is therefore by the help of such impressions that cylinders are always studied ; we make use of them throughout this work. Our Figs. 136 and 137 give some idea of the change in appearance between a cylinder and its impression. vol. it. l L