Archaeological Museum of Bologna

The gems collection of the Museum includes 395 specimens of sfuse stones, set in ring and cameos. The material, except for two specimens, arrived in the Museum at the beginning of 1900, comes from the University collections and Palagi and unfortunately is devoid of provenance data, being the result of purchases on the antiquities market.
CThe collection, composed mainly of carnelian and agate, includes a wide examples of different types of stone used in antiquity: according to the change of tastes and fashions, indeed, carvers preferred minerals with different characteristics.
Beside the carnelian, used in all phases of ancient glyptic, is documented the sardonic, preferred by Etruscan and Etruscan-Italic carvers, amethyst and plasma, used mainly in the Augustan age, jaspers, preferably used in the II and III century AD. The gems of the collection were originally almost all stones ring with seal function; exception some specimens that were amulets.
The motifs that recur more frequently in the decoration are the representations of divinities, often inspired by famous models of statues and personifications, sometimes drawn from contemporary coin coinages: next to them are also present subjects from everyday life, from myth, from animal or magic world.
A part of the collection is then made up from renaissance and modern works, gemstones, glass gems and cameos, often imitations or copies of antique gems.