page_title: Cameo (carving)
section_title: Notable historic cameos
hierarchical_section_title: Cameo (carving) / History / Notable historic cameos
caption_attribution_description: Italiano: Sala delle Nozze Aldobrandini (Musei della biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana), esposizione temporanea (dicembre 2013) e collezione permanente
context_page_description: Cameo is a method of carving an object such as an engraved gem, item of jewellery or vessel. It nearly always features a raised relief image; contrast with intaglio, which has a negative image. 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. 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.
  Today the term may be used very loosely for objects with no colour contrast, and other, metaphorical, terms have developed, such as cameo appearance.
context_section_description: Gemma Augustea Cameo – Roman, after 10 AD. Two-layered onyx.
  "Tazza Farnese". An ancient Hellenistic bowl made of a very large cameo and purchased by Lorenzo de' Medici during the Italian Renaissance.
  Cup of the Ptolemies, a large Roman or Hellenistic vessel.
  Portland Vase, the best known piece of cameo glass.
  Great Cameo of France – Roman, c. 23 AD. Sardonyx.
  Gemma Claudia Cameo – Roman, 49 AD. Five-layered onyx.
  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.
  "Gonzaga Cameo": Ptolemy II and Arsinoë II. Sardonyx. 3rd century BC.
  Agrippina the Elder Cameo. Carved in Italy in the period of 37–41 AD. The carving is a three layer agate.
  Ptolemaic double cameo-Hellenistic, 278–270/269 BC. Eleven-layered onyx.
  Blacas Cameo: 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.
  "The head of Flora Cameo" – Benedetto Pistrucci. 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.
  Schaffhausen onyx – Roman, Augustan-era, depicting Pax Augusta or Felicitas
caption: The Gonzaga Cameo in the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg. The gem measures 15,7 x 11,8 cm.
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