A 14k gold Neoclassical cameo ring - image-1
A 14k gold Neoclassical cameo ring - image-2
A 14k gold Neoclassical cameo ring - image-3
A 14k gold Neoclassical cameo ring - image-1A 14k gold Neoclassical cameo ring - image-2A 14k gold Neoclassical cameo ring - image-3

Lot 42 Dα

A 14k gold Neoclassical cameo ring

Auction 1158 - overview Cologne
12.11.2020, 14:00 - Jewellery and Gold Boxes
Estimate: 1.500 € - 2.500 €

A 14k gold Neoclassical cameo ring

Two-layered black and white glass cameo with a fragmentary relief showing a mythological scene. Hallmarks: Fineness 585. Bezel 2.8 x 2.1 cm. Ring size 58. Weight 11.06 g.
Presumably early 19th C. cameo in a modern setting.

This rare glass cameo is based on a famous prototype dating from the 1st century B.C., namely a fragmentary carved sardonyx cameo from the collection of Cardinal Alessandro Albani (1692-1779) that has been housed in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston since 1921. The stone originally became well-known when it was published in circa 1760 by Johann Joachim Winckelmann under the title "The Tears of Achilles" in the catalogue of the important intaglio collection of Baron Philipp von Stosch. The design was highly influential upon Neoclassical intaglio carvers. Although Winckelmann originally interpreted the depiction as a scene from Homer's Iliad, most people nowadays follow the interpretation of the archaeologist John Davidson Beazley, who - upon comparison with ancient carved sarcophagi - identified the scene as Orestes and his friend Pylades from play "Iphigenia in Aulis" by Euripides.

Provenance

Private collection, Rhineland.