Cameo is a symbol of refined beauty. This is a work of art that combines subtle grace, refinement of forms, beauty and perfection. Cameos are ancient works of art that embody the ideal of harmonious and beautiful, created by man.
To tell the story of the cameo, let's define some terms that may be needed in our descriptions.
- Glyptic is the art of stone carving.
- Gems are cameos and intaglios.
- Cameos are carved stones with an image executed in relief.
- Intaglio - stones or gems with an in-depth image. From time to time they served as seals.
Already in the 4th century BC. masters of glyptics carved lions, sphinxes, scarab beetles in relief. But mostly they were one-color cameos. At the beginning of the 3rd century BC. e. multi-colored gems appear. For their execution, a multi-layered stone - agate was used. Layering, that is, the polychromeness of the stones, allowed the craftsmen, using different colors of the layers, to achieve extraordinary effects in terms of color and picturesqueness. Multi-layered agate emphasized the play of different tones and their shades, and by changing the thickness, for example, of the white layer of agate so that the dark lower layer was visible through it, it was possible to achieve different shades. Ancient masters used Indian sardonyx, which combined white, yellow with reddish and even brown hues. And Arabic, which was dominated by blue-black and bluish shades.
Where cameos come from - From Alexandria. The city, which was founded in 322 BC. e. Alexander the Great. It was here, at the mouth of the Nile River, that the skillful hands of Greek craftsmen made the great masterpieces of glyptics - a cameo with portraits of Ptolemy II and Arsinoe, the famous "Farnese Cup", "Ptolemy's Cup" and many others.
And after the campaigns of Alexander the Great, new minerals, diverse in color and brightness, began to be used in the manufacture of gems. Intaglios were more often used as seals, and cameos became a luxury item. They were inserted into rings, diadems, crowns, decorated the clothes of kings, priests and nobility. Furniture, musical instruments, caskets and other expensive utensils began to be decorated with expensive oriental minerals. The products that have survived to this day, created by craftsmen on orders from the mighty of this world, amaze with their beauty and delicate artistic taste.
In ancient art, masters of glyptics were held in high esteem. Many kings of Hellas had their own court stone carvers. Many of the nobility collected carved stones. For example, King Mithridates Eupator had a huge collection, which was very famous.
Cameo carving is not an easy task, it required not only patience and great skill, but also the ability to see the original beauty in the stone, which only a brilliant master can reproduce. How great the labor of carving cameos can be explained. After all, the master worked and created images almost blindly, since many stones, such as agate, are quite hard, harder than metal, and in order to cut them, you need not a metal cutter, but abrasives, for example, “Naxos stone”, corundum powder, diamond dust . And when the master turned the image, the abrasive powder mixed with water and oil covered the drawing.
It took years of continuous labor to make one cameo. And besides this, it was necessary to predict in advance, to see through the thickness of the mineral how its layers alternate, because they do not just go in parallel, they bend, do not match, change thickness - all this can destroy the intended image. Therefore, a person with selfless love for beauty, with virtuoso skill, could do it. And the image was born slowly.
However, the carvers were able to reproduce many ancient paintings in stone - they turned out to be original galleries of painting in miniature. Some of the cameos are copies of lost forever paintings by great artists - painters. The strength of the stone ensured the durability of the lost. The masterpieces of architecture and sculpture are gone forever, the paintings of ancient painters have disappeared without a trace, and the ancient gems silently keep the beauty and secrets of bygone times.
The collections of the Hermitage, Vienna, Paris can be considered the best collections of cameos.
The first gems in Russia began to be collected by Catherine II, who was seriously passionate about this occupation. And somehow in a letter to one of the French enlighteners she writes:
“My small collection of carved stones is such that yesterday four people could hardly carry two baskets with boxes, which contained barely half the collection. To avoid misunderstanding, know that these were the baskets in which we carry firewood in winter.
Access to the collection was limited, not many people could see it. During the reign of Catherine II, up to 10000 gems were collected.
Then the collection of the Hermitage continued to be replenished from the collections of the Russian nobility until 1917. And now the collection is growing. Not only archaeological expeditions contribute to this, but well-known collections of gems from mineral scientists are also transferred. For example, the collection of the famous mineralogist G.G. Lemlein added more than 1964 ancient gems to the Hermitage in 260.
It should be noted separately the world-famous cameo, which is in the collection of the Hermitage, the Gonzago cameo, which appeared in Russia in 1814. The cameo was presented to Alexander I by Josephine de Beauharnais, Napoleon's ex-wife. In 1542, the name of the owner of this cameo was mentioned for the first time - the Duke of Mantua Gonzago. After the defeat of Mantua by Austria, the cameo began to travel. For four hundred years it has changed its owners seven times. Now it is in the Hermitage.
The cameo was created by an unknown master in the 3rd century. BC. in Alexandria. It depicts the monarchs of Hellenistic Egypt, Ptolemy II and his wife Arsinoe. Depicting Ptolemy, the master emphasized his resemblance to Alexander the Great. On his shoulder is the aegis of Zeus, the helmet of the monarch clearly repeats the helmet of the god Ares. On the heads of the rulers are laurel wreaths as a symbol of deification.
Cameo Gonzago is a fine example of painting on stone. The master superbly and masterfully used all the layers of the stone. The profile of Ptolemy II seems to be highlighted in bright light, while the profile of Arsinoe is visible in the shadow of a bluish tint. The topmost brown layer has a helmet, hair, and aegis carved into it, while lighter inclusions in this layer are used to create the heads of Medusa and Phobos decorating the aegis. And that is not all. By changing the polish, the master gives the stone either bodily warmth or metallic luster.
Many antique cameos are distinguished by refinement and sophistication; mythological scenes can often be found on them. The extraordinary skill of the carvers is striking - their ability to depict complex multi-figure compositions, find the right rhythm of the drawing and give dynamism to miniature scenes. In addition to monarchs, copies of paintings by painters and mythological scenes, cameos depict the heroism of themes and the pathos of images. The Goddess of Victory is a favorite character in glyptic.
The culture of Ancient Hellas was also adopted by Rome. With the fall of the Ptolemaic kingdom (30 BC), the last power of Hellenism, many Greek masters gave their talent to the Julio-Claudian dynasty. A new style is born. Two-color reliefs are already preferred - white silhouettes on a dark background. Glyptics is becoming more and more dry, graphic and planar.
Epochs change, attitudes towards beauty change, sometimes cameos begin to be remade, as if retelling stories, subordinating them to the spirit of the times.
Cameos are not only beautiful works of art, but also a rich source of information about the material and spiritual culture of bygone times. The ancient world reached the highest peaks in the field of art, therefore, in subsequent eras, especially in the field of glyptics, many masters remained at the mercy of this beauty and perfection, and their gems are imitations or copies of those that personified the ideal of painting in stone.
What cameos in our modern world? Is there a place for them in jewelry?
Certainly there is. And recently, cameos have become especially popular. Today, as in the Victorian era, cameos adorn brooches, pendants, hairpins, and rings. Masters choose subjects not only antique, but also modern. There is also the watch company Breguet, which uses this technique, for example, in its Reine de Naples watches. The Reine de Naples watch was created by Abraham-Louis Breguet for the Queen of Naples, Caroline Bonaparte-Murat. She was the younger sister of Napoleon I and the wife of his marshal Murat.
Since this watch did not survive, its design was restored according to the descriptions found in the company's archives. Almost 10 years ago, the clock of the "Queen of Naples" began to count the time again. And then many more variants of this watch appeared, but the first model in the form of a cameo-chamomile appeared in 2008. And on the eve of the bicentenary of the model, the Breguet brand has released a unique version of the watch. Bas-relief of a sea shell in the upper part of the dial, the bezel of the case is decorated with diamonds, the back case is made of sapphire glass. All listed watches are created in one copy.
And so, cameos are popular again and are a must-have item in the jewelry wardrobe. They combined the beauty of oriental minerals with the high genius of Hellas, the beauty of Man and Nature.
