Pliny the Elder and the Matter of Memory

An Encyclopaedic Workshop

Anna Anguissola

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000452990
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: History of Ancient Art

The Roman official and intellectual Pliny the Elder's Natural History constitutes our primary source on the figural arts in Classical antiquity. Since the Middle Ages, Pliny's encyclopaedia has enraptured the imaginations of its readers with anecdotes and narratives about the lives and accomplishments of the great artists of the Greek past. This book explores the ways in which materials and artistic processes are constructed in Natural History.

In doing so, this work reflects current developments in the study of Graeco-Roman art, where the scientific analysis of sculptural stones, pigments, and metal alloys, as well as a more detailed understanding of technologies and workshop practices, has imposed radical changes in the methods and theoretical models used to approach ancient artefacts. The argument considers the role of materials in discourses on Nature, as well as their semantics and the language used to account for artistic creation. Discussion of artistic techniques addresses the discovery of resources and technologies, and the discursive implications of creation and viewing. By focusing on particular passages and exemplary case studies, this book explores the ideological, moral, and intellectual preoccupations that guide Pliny's construction of materialities and human ingenuity in a period characterised by a rapidly-evolving economic landscape. The material and performative aspects of artistic, manual creation provided this early encyclopaedist with the fundaments for constructing and explaining his view of Rome's imperial mission and, more specifically, of his own strategies as a collector and recorder of 'all' the memorable facts of Nature.

This book will be of significant interest to scholars of classical archaeology, Greek and Latin literature, social and economic history, and reception studies.

Part I

The nature of art

1 Art and material

DOI: 10.4324/9780429329159-1

Ut nihil instituto operi desit, gemmae supersunt et in artum coacta rerum naturae maiestas, multis nulla parte mirabilior. Tantum tribuunt varietati, coloribus, materiae, decori, violare etiam signis, quae causa gemmarum est, quasdam nefas ducentes, aliquas vero extra pretia ulla taxationemque humanarum opum arbitrantes, ut plerisque ad summam absolutamque naturae rerum contemplationem satis sit una aliqua gemma.

(Natural History 37.1)

In addition to setting the tone for the discussion of gems and precious stones, the first paragraph of Pliny’s last volume summarises many essential points of the encyclopaedia.¹ Gems, Pliny argues, deserve a place above all other materials in terms of both monetary and aesthetic value, as masterpieces of variety (varietas), colour (color), texture (materia), and beauty (decor).² It is owing to this intrinsic perfection that many consider it a crime (nefas) to tamper with (violare) certain types of stones by engraving them as signets. A single gemstone alone is sufficient to provide “a supreme and perfect aesthetic experience of the wonders of Nature” (ad summam absolutamque naturae rerum contemplationem). Despite their diminutive size, gems encapsulate and showcase the magnificence (maiestas) of Nature, which Pliny painstakingly describes over his 36 books dedicated to cosmology, anthropology, animals, vegetation, and minerals.

Scholars have noted that lengthy introductions and conclusions cluster towards the end of the treatise, likely owing to the work’s increasing complexity, interrelatedness, and awareness of purpose.³ In the case of gemstones, the opening paragraph is also responsible for detailing new categories of classification and evaluation, which have rarely been employed in previous books. In the chapters regarding gems and precious stones, intrinsic qualities—perceived through the senses—emerge as indispensable tools for appraising, criticising, and ranking objects and materials. The senses are the sole instruments for understanding substances that elude all efforts at intellectual rationalisation. We may argue that the Natural History presents gemstones as a synthesis of both Nature’s properties and the methods used to describe and classify them. The rest of the natural world serves as a comparison: a familiar reference to describe what is often otherwise indefinable.⁴ The idea of the ultimate untouchability of precious stones expresses a tension between natural properties (materia) and artistic skill (ars) that runs throughout the encyclopaedia. Commercial value (pretium), which, in Pliny’s work, often hangs in the balance between the competing factors of material worth and artistic skill, is explicitly excluded in the discussion of gems. As the perfect product of Nature, gems defy the bounds and preoccupations of human economy.

A key concern in the opening paragraph of Book 37 is the power of reduction and concentration. The greatness of Nature has been condensed (coacta) into each individual gem, to the point that the inspection (contemplatio) of a single stone can provide an immersive, all-encompassing aesthetic experience. This is an increasingly central aspect of Pliny’s final volumes, where the concentration of marvels in certain places implicitly mirrors Pliny’s own collection of facts.⁵ At the very end of the work, before saluting the object of his investigation and the “mother of all creation”, Nature, Pliny returns to the place where all the world’s resources converge: Italy. He then enumerates a list of the most prized creatures and substances (Nat. 37.201–204).

This chapter argues that the treatment of gemstones provides a compendium of the concepts and beliefs outlined throughout the entire encyclopaedia, while at the same time experimenting with new strategies for classification about an extraordinarily challenging subject. How does the conclusion clarify and systematise thoughts developed in earlier sections of the treatise? What is the place of gemstones among the products of Nature and what categories does Pliny employ to account for their variety and for the position they occupy in human imagery? How, moreover, does a ‘taxonomy of the senses’ contribute to this double effort of classification and theoretical salience?

Natural art

In several respects, the last two volumes constitute a cluster within the Natural History. Both concern stones, albeit of different sizes, availabilities, and values. More to the point, both highlight the same preoccupation with gaze, and the concentration of resources or qualities in a single object or place (and, implicitly, in a single work of literature). Pliny harmonises the passage between the two volumes, moving away from building stones in the final section of Book 36 to concentrate on ‘liminal’ materials with reflective properties, like glass (Nat. 36.189–195) and obsidian (Nat. 36.196–198). Glass occupies an important place in the broader treatment of gemstones, as both a familiar term of comparison for the quality of transparency and the chief substance used for the falsification of gems.⁶ The position of obsidian between stones and gems is even more precarious (Figure 1.1). Owing to its similarity with glass, Pliny feels that it is proper to address obsidian at this point in his work, instead of accounting for it much later, amongst other black stones (Nat. 37.177). Pliny’s apparent need to explain his criteria reflects an awareness that the classification of obsidian may constitute a controversial issue. Obsidian is introduced in light of its affinity with, and difference from, glass (Nat. 36.196).⁷ The best glass is in turn as translucent and colourless as rock crystal (viz. quartz; Nat. 36.198), the first stone introduced in the following volume. Following glass and obsidian, Book 36 closes with a substance that holds an intermediate position between all other materials and Nature herself: fire (Nat. 36.200–204). While everything that has been described until this point “depends upon Man’s talent for making Art reproduce Nature” (Nat. 36.200), fire escapes the distinction between producer and product, acting as a “vast, unruly” force and an instrument for creation (Nat. 36.201).⁸ From this point onwards, and throughout the last book of the Natural History, the role of human ingenuity is largely irrelevant, being limited to the falsification of gems.

Figure 1.1 Pompeii, obsidian ‘mirror’ in the peristyle of the House of the Golden Cupids (VI 16, 7.38), Fourth Style (62–79 CE). Max. H 39.5 cm; max. W 24.5 cm.

Credit: Author.

The first two materials discussed in the final volume of the encyclopaedia, fluorite or fluorspar and rock crystal, present close affinities with glass, which is used for the falsification of both (Nat. 37.18–30).⁹ Fluorite or fluorspar is mined in a variety of colours and is used to create the so-called ‘myrrhine vases’. Although allegedly created by counterpoised natural circumstances, and obtained from the earth using different methods, ‘myrrhine’ and rock crystal share the feature of fragility, which is also the main reason for their popularity (Nat. 35.5).¹⁰ Both were carved into delicate and expensive drinking vessels, with ‘myrrhine’ employed for cold and hot drinks, while rock crystal could not withstand heat and was used exclusively for cold liquids (Nat. 37.26, 30).¹¹

Pliny associates the alleged differences in a material’s tolerance to various conditions and temperatures with the alleged mode of formation. Rock crystal is considered as some sort of extraordinarily hard and compact ice (Nat. 37.23), that is, as hyper-condensed water. This intrinsically reversible state explains the material’s inability to withstand heat.¹² By accounting for the behaviour of natural substances based on patterns of ‘homeopathic affinities’, Pliny reveals his commitment to the doctrine of cosmic sympathy (συμπάθεια), which has its roots in Stoic materialism. Sympathy is a function of the vital force (pneuma) that infuses all matter, holding the natural world in a state of interdependence. The principles of sympathy and antipathy govern Pliny’s presentation of the vegetal, animal, and mineral world as an overarching explanation for affinities and contrasts.¹³

The formation of gems follows a common paradigm. Gems are a petrification of an originally liquid substance, formed from a reaction between opposing external forces, such as cold and heat.¹⁴ In the case of rock crystal, the relationship between its ‘liquid past’ and ‘solid present’ is implicitly unstable. A fascination with the formation of rock crystal is a well-established topos in Hellenistic and Roman visual culture.¹⁵ In Posidippus’ third-century BCE collection of poems about stones (known as lithika), the epigram dedicated to rock crystal is placed after those on carved gems, which display superlative artistic prowess (Epigram 16 AB).¹⁶ Unlike the latter, rock crystal is presented as a rough product of Nature, torn from a mountain and brought to the seashore in a “vast quantity of chunks” by the raging stream of a river.¹⁷ A much later source—the late-antique poet Claudian—provides a more elaborate, and sensually richer, account of the hybrid nature of rock crystal.¹⁸ In a series of seven short epigrams (33–39), Claudian describes the miracle of a drop of water included in a piece of crystal, the residual effect of imperfect crystallisation (Epigram 33) and an indication of the material’s original identity.¹⁹ The contrast between the icy, hard stone and the liquid substance ‘imprisoned’ underneath its surface elicits an irresistible sensual reaction (Epigram 38). Claudian depicts the excitement of children touching the chilly mass, emphasising the contrast of their soft hands (tenero pollice) rubbing the hardness of the stone (marmore), and their eager lips pressing onto the dry surface, in the hope of tasting the ...