From Naples to Vienna

Antique Shell Cameo With Depiction of the Hebe, Naples/Vienna ca. 1880

€ 980.00 ^*

Content 1 piece

Unit price €980.00 / piece

Incl. VAT, Shipping

Antique Shell Cameo With Depiction of the Hebe, Naples/Vienna ca. 1880

Description

This description was automatically translated from German. If you have any questions about this piece of jewellery, we will be happy to help!

The present brooch, dates from the late 19th century. An era in which jewellery with shell cameos was particularly popular. The high oval piece of jewellery in a frame of gold shows on the front a finely cut cameo of bicoloured shell. Depicted is a scene from classical mythology: we see the youthful Hebe in peaceful coexistence with Zeus, the father of the gods, in the form of an eagle. In an artistic cut, the cameo-cutter has captured Hebe as the goddess of youth at her most important task in the heaven of the gods: She is cupbearer to the Olympian gods and responsible for the preparation of food. Here she serves her father Zeus a bowl of the gods' ambrosia. Hebe is dressed in a peplos and Zeus as a mighty eagle feasts in flight, a bundle of lightning bolts firmly in his fangs. In Homer, the food of the Olympian gods nectar and ambrosia occur in the Iliad and Odyssey as immortalizing food. In the course of mythological tradition, Hebe is said to have been replaced in this task by the Trojan prince Ganymede after her marriage to Heracles, for Ganymede soon became cupbearer to the gods. While the cameo was almost certainly made in the Bay of Naples, the 14-carat gold frame was forged in Vienna, as the hallmarks reveal. The plain frame shows off the matt sheen of a fine gilding applied to the 14-karat base to make the colour of the precious metal even more radiant. The fine shell carving is probably a souvenir of a trip to Italy. We can date the pretty work to the years around 1880, because the stamps were used between 1872 and 1922. Hebe and the Zeus eagle came to us from Stuttgart and we are curious where they will go next.

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For centuries, possessing antique cameos was the claim of almost all great collections of decorative arts and cabinets of curiosities, from the Green Vault in Dresden to the treasury of Rudolf II to large private collections such as that of Baron von Stosch in later times. The 18th and 19th centuries produced numerous large imprint collections of antique seal stones and cameos, which were able to represent the ancient imagery of antique glyptic almost in its entirety, as they were also an expression of a humanistic education. Often figures of the Olympian heaven of gods or mythological scenes were the subject of the representations. Of particular importance for the transmission of stone and shell carvings north of the Alps have always been travellers to Italy, who brought home impressions and carved stones as well as engraved shells from their educational journeys in order to enjoy the stories that the shells could tell. The art of cameo-cutting has survived to this day in Italy, especially in the Bay of Naples, where it has been passed down from generation to generation. Today, the Scuola dei Cammei in Torre del Greco is the only large-scale training centre for cameo-cutters in Italy in the world, although unfortunately the mythological theme has been lost.

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Size & Details

From Naples to Vienna

€ 980.00 ^*

Content 1 piece

Unit price €980.00 / piece

Incl. VAT, Shipping

Our Promise

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You can rely on our years of experience in the trade and our expertise as a professional art historians for reviews of the antique jewellery. As a member of various trade organisations and the British Society of Jewellery Historians, we remain committed to the highest possible degree of accuracy. In our descriptions, we always also indicate any signs of age and defects and never hide them in our photos – this saves you from any unpleasant surprises when your package arrives.

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