Abstract

This article addresses the problem of the fortune of Renaissance glyptics through two kinds of sources rarely used by art historians. On the one hand, it considers the literary ekphrasis, that is, the description of art objects in texts that are not included in the Kunstliteratur as commonly understood. On the other hand, it focuses on counterfeiting manufacture, that is, the imitation of luxury products through techniques specific to serial production. The admiration of contemporaries for Renaissance glyptics is confirmed not only across the intellectual élites, but also at the level of the artistic market, which was accessible even to the less educated layers of society. At the same time, art historians shall also consider artefacts that take the most striking aspects of hard stone objects as models. Forgery thus proves to be a harbinger of unsuspected critical values, worthy of being investigated even beyond the specific field of Renaissance glyptics.