Outstanding cameo by Luigi Panini set on golden ring. The Three Graces.

This extremely fine cameo by Luigi Panini (b. 1788) of The Three Graces, which can be ascribed to the 1820s, is signed PANINI on top, and the group is described with the added inscription of the names of Zeus’s three daughters: EVFROSINE (Euphrosyne - joy) on the left, AGLAIA (Aglae - beauty) in the center, and TALIA (Thalia - abundance) on the right. The golden ring seems to be later than the gem, by only a few decades.
Luigi Panini is a little-known but highly-gifted engraver, born in Rome, the son of a certain Bartolomeo Panini – sometimes spelt Pannini. None of his works can be found among the Paoletti casts (1), but a large and refined cameo of Pope Pius IX by him is preserved in the Vatican museums (inv. 2767, onyx, 73 by 54 by 20 mm) (2). Another cameo by him is known, a multilayered bust of Ceres/Arethusa inspired from a Sicilian coin (3). So far, it seems that Panini chose – rather than creating new design of uncertain success – to copy well known and loved works of art. May it be that Panini only engraved cameos? In the Quattrocento, Domenico de'Cammei got his nickname for cameos only, and Giovanni delle Corniole got his nickname for carnelian intaglios only, so such specialization is a possibility. But a copy of Aspasios’s intaglio-bust of Athena Parthenos was published – in a same book – as being Panini’s work and Saulini’s work (4): until that stone is rediscovered, its authorship will remain a mystery. Panini’s cameo is a copy of a lost intaglio – of unknown material and date – of about 40 x 28 mm, by Luigi Pichler (1773-1854), after a lifesize marble sculpture by Antonio Canova (5). In addition to the medium change (from intaglio to cameo) and to the language change (Pichler had inscribed the muses’ names in Greek rather than Latin), Panini also modified slightly the drapery in order to protect Thalia’s modesty (6). This is one of many – but one of the best – illustrations of this them in neoclassical glyptics. The Pichler family engraved several versions, notably a superb carnelian intaglio by Giovanni Pichler, c.1766-1771 (7), the success of which was such that his brother Luigi copied it in chalcedony (8).
We are grateful to Hadrien Rambach for his assistance in writing this entry.
References and comparisons:
1) Lucia Pirzio Biroli Stefanelli, La collezione Paoletti. Stampi in vetro per impronte di intagli e cammei, vol. I, Rome 2007; La collezione Paoletti, vol. II, Rome 2012.
2) Romolo Righetti, Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia. Rendiconti, vol. XXVIII.III/IV (1955-56), p. 338; Romolo Righetti, Opere di glittica dei Musei Sacro e Profano, Città del Vaticano I955, pp. 47-48, pl. XVII; C. G. Bulgari, Argentieri, gemmari e orafi d'Italia, vol. II, Rome 1959, p. 230; Anna Bulgari Calissoni, Maestri argentieri, gemmari e orafi di Roma, Roma 1987, p. 329; Michel Duchamp, « De Girometti à Michelini (VI) », in Bulletin de la Société Française de Numismatique, vol. 46.11 (November 1991), pp. 191-198 ; Lucia Pirzio Biroli Stefanelli, « Collezionisti e incisori in pietre dure a Roma nel XVIII e XIX secolo. Alcune considerazioni», in Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, vol. 59.2 (1996), pp. 183-197: p. 193; Michel Duchamp, «xxx», in The Medal, vol. 31-33, pp. xxx: p. 47.
3) Archibald Billing, The Science of Gems, Jewels, Coins, And Medals Ancient And Modern, London 1867 (new ed.: London 1875), fig. 47. Supposing that Billing’s plate reproduce the gem at actual size, the cameo would measure c.28x20 mm.
4) Archibald Billing, The Science of Gems, Jewels, Coins, And Medals Ancient And Modern, London 1867 (new ed.: London 1875), p. 11 and pp. 78-79, fig. 43. Supposing that Billing’s plate reproduce the gem at actual size, the cameo would measure c.38x31 mm.
5) Published in 1836 in the Trésor de Numismatique et de Glyptique; in Lucia Pirzio Biroli Stefanelli, La collezione Paoletti, vol. II, Rome 2012, no. V.496 (Museo di Roma, inv. MR 27130, moule en verre brun). Canova had painted a version of the theme as early as 1799, then made a terracotta model in 1810 (now in the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon) which Joséphine de Beauharnais liked – leading to the commission in 1812 of the marble version which was in Munich in Pichler’s time and was acquired by the Hermitage museum in 1901.
6) The cast by Tassie of an unsigned intaglio is preserved in Edinburgh (tray 33.2, no. 2062): it is inscribed in Greek as on Pichler’s intaglio, but the drapery is similar to that on Panini’s cameo. It would be precious to discover its authorship.
7) Gabriella Tassinari, Giovanni Pichler. Raccolta di impronte di intagli e di cammei del Gabinetto Numismatico e Medagliere delle Raccolte Artistiche del Castello Sforzesco di Milano, Milan 2012, pp. 172-174, cat. no. I-39.
8) Dietrich Willers et Lilian Raselli-Nydegger, Im Glanz der Götter und Heroen. Meisterwerke antiker Glyptik aus der Stiftung Leo Merz, Mayence 2003, pp. 176-177, cat. no. 189 (entry by Domenico Perroni). The gem was also copied in grisaille by the painter Giuseppe Anselmo Pellicia, for the home of count Fritz Reventlow in Emkendorf (Schlechwig-Holstein): C. & G.W. Trube, « Die Emkendorfer Sammlung der Abdrücke von geschnittenen Steinen Giovanni Pichlers als Vorlage für Grisaillen von Giuseppe Anselmo Pellicia», in Nordelbingen. Beiträge zur Kunst - und Kulturgeschichte, vol. 65 (1995), pp. 41-68: pp. 61-62, fig. 35.
Intaglio mm 31 x 23 x 4; ring diam. mm 19, gr. 7,92
Early 19th century