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Лот 212 - Auction 54

Лот 212

Glyptics
A fine roman cameo in onyx-sardonyx. Zeus with the four elements. The king of the Olympus, laureate, is turned to the ... Читать далее
результат:
30.000,00 GBP
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19

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Описание

A fine roman cameo in onyx-sardonyx. Zeus with the four elements. The king of the Olympus, laureate, is turned to the right and charatcerized by thick beard and hair, both finely engraved. Around, the four elements: above, an eagle (air); on the right, a dolphin (water); on the left, a lion head (earth); underneath, a bundle of lightnings (fire). The rare and extraordinary iconography can be referred to the so-called "Giove fra' li quattro Elementi"(Zeus depicted with the four elements around), found in an opaque pink glass cast from the Paoletti production (inv. n. MR 25973), from an onyx cameo attributed to Giovanni Battista Cerbara /1748-1811), Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum. The Vienna cameo ("Zeus und die vier Elemente"), indeed, shows a different style and manufacturing technique, imitating the ancient style, following a less cared and refined stylish rendering, far from dignified classicism. Even the elements are placed following a different disposition, and re-elaborated at the artist's discretion, in order to keep far from a derivative, unoriginal copy. In the same Viennese collections there is a specimen of the same iconography (but with variations in the attributes around the god's head, e.g. a peacock instead of an eagle). Besides, in a set of Grand Tour plaster casts, the cast taken from the ancient specimen has been detected (the original model, which, during the neoclassical period, the engravers were inspired by); such plaster cast, surrounded by the typical golden paper frame, is mentioned as "cameo antico in sardonice- Giove co li elementi" (ancient sardonyx cameo - Zeus with the elements). The peculiar engraving technique, the style details, the traces of the fine working procedure and the type of polishing (mirror-finish for the field, following the stone surface texture) claim the antiquity of the artifact, which is mainly ascribable to the most important late-hellenistic glyptic production. Likewise extraordinary is the choice of this sardonyx, having 11 perfecly superimposed layers, a type of particularly precious stone, highly searched for this kind of productions (employed by the ancients, with a likewise regularity between the layers, also for intaglios other than cameos, even for their decorative beauty). The first layer, of a dark brown colour, pertains to a portion of Zeus' head (part of the hair, the laurel, part of the beard); the rest of the depiction has been engraved by exploiting the white layer on a dark field (intense brown with lighter shades, where we can see, in transparency, the underlying light layer, with a highly pictorial effect, nearly clouded). The back of the gem, which has light wear marks on, shows the stone-cutting with its natural and multiform shades between the two bands of different colours. A piece of an extraordinary value, both historical and artistic, and made with great artistry. For insights and comparisons: L.P.B. Stefanelli, La collezione Paoletti. Stampi in vetro per impronte di intagli e cammei, vol. I, Roma 2007, pp.241-242, n. III-499; Fritz Eichler & Ernst Kris, Die Kameen im Kunsthistorischen Museum, Vienna 1927, p. 217, pl. 77, cat. n. 616-617. End of the 1st century B.C. - Beginning of the 1st century A.D.
23 x 26 x 4 mm.

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