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Cameo (carving)

Cameo (/ˈkæmi/) is a method of carving an object such as an engraved gem, item of jewellery or vessel. It nearly always features a raised (positive) relief image; contrast with intaglio, which has a negative image.[1] Originally, and still in discussing historical work, cameo only referred to works where the relief image was of a contrasting colour to the background; this was achieved by carefully carving a piece of material with a flat plane where two contrasting colours met, removing all the first colour except for the image to leave a contrasting background.

A variation of a carved cameo is a cameo incrustation (or sulphide). An artist, usually an engraver, carves a small portrait, then makes a cast from the carving, from which a ceramic type cameo is produced. This is then encased in a glass object, often a paperweight. These are very difficult to make but were popular from the late 18th century through the end of the 19th century. Originating in Bohemia, the finest examples were made by the French glassworks in the early to mid-nineteenth century.[2]


Today the term may be used very loosely for objects with no colour contrast, and other, metaphorical, terms have developed, such as cameo appearance. This derives from another generalized meaning that has developed, the cameo as an image of a head in an oval frame in any medium, such as a photograph.

Technique[edit]

Ancient and Renaissance cameos were made from semi-precious gemstones,[3] especially the various types of onyx and agate, and any other stones with a flat plane where two contrasting colours meet; these are "hardstone" cameos. In cheaper modern work, shell and glass are more common. Glass cameo vessels, such as the famous Portland Vase, were also developed by the Romans.


Modern cameos can be produced by setting a carved relief, such as a portrait, onto a background of a contrasting colour. This is called an assembled cameo. Alternatively, a cameo can be carved by the traditional, but far more difficult, method directly out of a material with integral layers or banding, such as (banded) agate or layered glass, where different layers have different colours.


Sometimes dyes are used to enhance these colours.

Cameo – Roman, after 10 AD. Two-layered onyx.[11]

Gemma Augustea

"". An ancient Hellenistic bowl made of a very large cameo and purchased by Lorenzo de' Medici during the Italian Renaissance.

Tazza Farnese

a large Roman or Hellenistic vessel.

Cup of the Ptolemies

the best known piece of cameo glass.

Portland Vase

– Roman, c. 23 AD. Sardonyx.

Great Cameo of France

Cameo – Roman, 49 AD. Five-layered onyx.[11]

Gemma Claudia

Herophiloska Cameo – Roman, 14 to 37 AD. This portrait of a man with laurel wreath is probably of Emperor Tiberius. The work is signed Herophilos Dioskourid[ou] ('Herophilus, son of Dioscorides'). The colour of the glass was intended by the artist to imitate turquoise.

[11]

"": Ptolemy II and Arsinoë II. Sardonyx. 3rd century BC.[12]

Gonzaga Cameo

Cameo. Carved in Italy in the period of 37–41 AD. The carving is a three layer agate.

Agrippina the Elder

Ptolemaic double cameo — Hellenistic, 278–270/269 BC. Eleven-layered onyx.

[11]

: Roman, about 20–50 AD. This head of Augustus was carved from a four-layered sardonyx. It is a fragment of a larger portrait of the Roman emperor-Augustus.[13]

Blacas Cameo

"The head of Flora Cameo" – . 1812 AD. In this cameo the top red-brown layer has been carved into roses. The face is carved from the white layer. The collector Richard Payne Knight purchased the Flora cameo from an Italian dealer, believing it to be Roman. The Italian carver Pistrucci claimed to have carved it himself. Payne challenged Pistrucci to carve a copy to prove his claim. The ensuing publicity earned Pistrucci several commissions.[14]

Benedetto Pistrucci

– Roman, Augustan-era, depicting Pax Augusta or Felicitas

Schaffhausen onyx

Giovanni Noto (1902–1985)-Torre del Greco, Italy

Tommaso Saulini (1793–1864)-Rome, Italy

Luigi Saulini (1819–1883)-Rome, Italy, (son of Tommaso)

contains in its center the three-layered cameo of the Roman Emperor Augustus.

Cross of Lothair

- popular ceramic imitation of cameos

Jasperware

Jarrett, Diana (2009). Cameos Old and New- 4th Edition.  978-0-943763-60-6.

ISBN

Miller, Anne (2003). Cameos Old and New.  0-442-00278-5.

ISBN

Draper, James (2009). Cameo Appearances: Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art.  978-0-300-14145-0.

ISBN

Dunlop, Paul H., The Jokelson Collection of Cameo Incrustation,  0-9619547-3-6

ISBN

Scarisbrick, Dianna (2003). Classical Gems: Ancient and Modern Intaglios and Cameos in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.  978-0-521-23901-1.

ISBN

Henig, Martin (1990). The Content Family Collection of Ancient Cameos-Ashmolean Museum.  978-1-85444-004-4.

ISBN

Fiorelli, Anna (1989). Corals and Cameos – The treasures of Torre Del Greco.

Walters, H.B (1927). Catalogue of the Engraved Gems and Cameos, Greek, Etruscan, and Roman in the British Museum.

Neverov, O (1971). Antique Cameos in the Hermitage Collection. Aurora Art Publishers.

Antique Cameos in the Hermitage Museum

Gareth Eckley (cameo-artist)

August Rudolf Wild 1891-1956, Gemmenschneider (cameo-artist)

Gerhard Schmidt, Gemmenschneider (cameo-artist)