Renaissance Cameo Ring of Galba in a Modern Gold Setting

RENAISSANCE MARRIAGE PORTRAIT CAMEO IN MODERN GOLD SETTING Italy (?), 16th-17th century White agate, modern gold setting Weight: 10.8 g.; circumference: 54.4 mm.; size: US 7, UK N ½ Substantial rounded D-section hoop, narrowing at the base supports an oblong collet set with a white agate cameo. The cameo features a female bust behind a male bust in profile facing to the viewer’s left. The man has a curly beard, wears a fillet in his closely cropped hair, and wears a draped toga; the woman is less well defined and wears a palla. Both portraits have flat features. The carving has a metallic quality to its lines which enhances the sheen of the stone. The cameo is in excellent condition; the mount is modern. The Renaissance welcomed a revival in the ancient art of gem carving and cameos achieved renewed popularity. Important patrons, like the Medici, employed artists and goldsmiths to make dozens of beautiful examples that harkened back to antiquity and displayed current fashions. Double portraits of a man and woman, as with this ring, are called marriage portraits. They take their form from cameos of Roman rulers, mythological lovers, and citizen couples. Literature This couple could be a sixteenth-century copy of an ancient gem or it could represent a Renaissnce couple in the guise of a Roman couple. The features do not point to any well-known couples. A double portrait cameo in the Royal Collection (RCIN 65861) provides a nice comparison to this ring and is from the same period. For an ancient example of the double portrait cameo see the Metropolitan Museum’s Germanicus and Agrippina (39.22.18) cameo. Another comparison, see the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris (a 17th-century cameo with the double portrait of a couple in a three-layered agate, published in Babelon, 1897, n. 1019). For general information on Renaissance cameos...

RENAISSANCE CAMEO RING Italy, cameo: second half of 16th century in a late 18th century ring Gold, agate , black enamel Weight 6.3 gr.; bezel 18.8 x 16.9 x 6.5 mm.; circumference 58.4 mm.; US size 8¾; UK size R Cameo of a nude female bust...

RENSAISSANCE CAMEO RING Italy? 16th century in a 20th century setting Gold and sardonyx Weight 6.5 gr.; bezel 16.1 x 16.9 x 7.4 mm.; circumference 50.3 mm.; US size 5½; UK size L In this oblong cameo, the bust of a woman wearing a necklace but otherwise nude stands above a blue ground. While her breast faces forward, her head is rendered in a strict profile and her hands gesture to her right. The minimalist gold setting is modern and dates to the twentieth century. Cameos depicting nude female figures became popular in the court circles of sixteenth-century Italy, where newly-formed princely collections of ancient gems served as models for contemporary hardstone artists. Following ancient practice, the artist responsible for the current cameo has cut into two layers of the multicolor agate, creating a background of milky blue that contrasts with the white flesh of the woman above. The sharp profile of the woman’s face likewise recalls the art of the ancient Romans, who often used the profile view for portraits on coins, medals, and engraved gems...

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