This portrait of Caesar had wide spread importance. I’m interested in it here not because of it’s numismatic significance, but in fact for how it’s talked about by art historians. This passage from an old article concerned with identifying a sculpture head as Caesar, or not, uses an interesting logic about why Mettius’ portrait was influential and how it relates to both gems and glass-pastes. Under all this are some assumptions about how iconography develops and disseminates that I want to think about more in future:
Here’s the Amethyst discussed:
Liv Mariah Yarrow 