Divine Messenger

Large Shell Cameo Brooch with Mercury after Giambologna, Italy c. 1910

€ 1,190.00 ^*

Content 1 piece

Incl. VAT, Shipping

Large Shell Cameo Brooch with Mercury after Giambologna, Italy c. 1910

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 Roman god Mercury, also known as Hermes in Greece, was considered the "messenger of the gods" and is the god of merchants and thieves, art dealers, oratory, gymnastics and magic! A universal protective god - and he has been depicted many hundreds of times in the history of art. The most famous image of the god today was created by Giambologna in Florence around 1580. His bronze statuette of the Mercurio volante has survived to this day in several versions, in Florence in the Museo del Bargello, but also in Dresden, for example, see here. The statue, a major work of the Green Vault, came to Dresden as a gift from the Dukes of Tuscany. Other versions can be found, for example, in the KHM in Vienna, but also in the Louvre in Paris. Giambologna's pictorial idea was therefore very successful and quickly spread throughout Europe - and it also became the model for the present cameo! We see the god balancing on a column of air, propelled by the wind god Zephyr. Mercury is about to leave the world of the gods in order to communicate the decisions of Olympus to mankind. It is interesting to note how the carver of the shell depicted the body of the god. The youthful god Giambolognas has matured into a muscular man. His face is ancient, his expression energetic and his chest broad. It is this emphatically masculine depiction that allows us to date the cameo to the first decades of the 20th century. The oval shell is held by a simple gold setting. It is designed as a simple cord and turns the cameo into a brooch. We discovered the piece of jewelry in London. It probably came to the cool north as a souvenir from a trip to Italy.

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For centuries, owning cameos and cameos was the aspiration of almost all major collections of decorative arts and cabinets of curiosities, from the Green Vault in Dresden to the treasury of Rudolf II and large private collections such as that of Baron von Stosch in later times. The 18th and 19th centuries produced numerous large collections of impressions of ancient seal stones and cameos, which were able to represent the ancient pictorial language of glyptic art almost in its entirety, as they were also an expression of humanistic education. However, the art of cameo cutter 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 world's only large-scale training center for cameo cutters in Italy. Particularly important for the teaching of stone and shell carving north of the Alps have always been travelers to Italy, who brought home impressions and cut stones as well as engraved shells from their educational journeys to enjoy.

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Size & Details

Divine Messenger

€ 1,190.00 ^*

Content 1 piece

Incl. VAT, Shipping

Our Promise

We want you to be 100% satisfied! For that reason, we examine, describe and photograph all of our jewellery with the utmost care.

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.

Should you for some reason not be satisfied, please don’t hesitate to contact us so that we can find a solution together. In any case, you can return any article within one month and we will refund the full purchase price.

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