Featured Roman Soldier Cameo(s) necklace, Hematite?

Sorry for the pictures, I was in a rush and didn't realize I snapped such terrible photos, I'll get better ones posted in a couple days.

None of us really know what to make of this necklace.

Victorian?
Edwardian?
1920s/30s?
Modern?

Hematite?
Hematine?
Glass?

Some think its a mourning necklace, but why have Roman soldiers?
Symbol of a loved one off to war or killed?


It is constructed of wire, beads, and cameos and has a little weight behind it.
The clasp is just a continuation for the wire, formed into a loop and hook.
The wire is a heavier gage, which allows the piece to be flexed and hold shape.

 

that does not look modern to me...

 

Me either, but jewelry is not my forte, and it's made with materials that is still used today, especially by smaller jewelry makers, so thought I'd double check

 

The beads are molded and look like French jet to me, black glass made to imitate jet. Usually not made in France but in Bohemia.
The cameos could be carved, @Bronwen . And I think the Roman soldier is actually the Greek Goddess Athena.
Looks late 19th century.

Although black jewellery is often associated with mourning, it also became fashionable. Queen Victoria mourned her dear Albert for so long, that wearing jet and jet lookalikes influenced 19th century jewellery fashion.

 

If the hair were a little shorter I would say the cameo is Achilles, but think it is long enough to be as AJ said, Athena/Minerva. Are the cameos all the same?

 

I believe they are all the same.

When you mentioned the hair, I went back and looked it over and noticed a dragon on the helmet, so I tried looking that up...

Looks like Perseus borrowed Hades Cap of Invisibility when he went to kill Madussa.
The only depiction I see him with a dragon is a bronze statue created in 1554 by French artist, Benvenuto Cellini.
Perseus has longer curly hair here as well.


Athena wore the helmet as well during the Trojan War, but I could not find a representation of a dragon on the helmet or any of her helmets.

Hermes wore the helmet as well, but none with a dragon.

I saw Minerva was the counterpart of Athena and Perseus, so I googled her further and found more depictions of snakes/dragons on her helmet, and one of her symbols is the serpent of Jupiter.
I found this 1900 sculpture by Fra Barolommeo with a dragon(?) as well.
So, I'm thinking possibly Minerva?

 

As opposed to Athena? Do you differentiate them?

With the exception of Perseus & Odysseus, Greek/Roman heroes wear helmets most of the time and their hair always shows from underneath, even running down the neck. Athena's hair trails down to her shoulders.

Gem engravers have been pretty freewheeling when it comes to Athena & her helmet, which can be ornamented all sorts of ways. Her helmet may also have a visor in the form of a satyr's face.



I could have shown more. See the Varvakeion Athena Parthenos for the most elaborate helmet of all.

 

I only differentiate between the two when it comes to the Belgian-made Minervas, some of the classiest cars of the 1920s and 30s:

 

It's just my personality to try and pick something down to the bare bones, figure out the WHY behind something.
Why sometimes a dragon, snake, Sphinx, Pegasus, or a face on the helmet.
Why sometimes the face of Madussa and sometimes the sun?

I guess it comes down to the time period, if a story or particular character was Uber popular during the time period of the creation, the artists personal interpretation and inspiration behind a piece, or if they flat out didn't care if it was Athena or Minerva, and just needed to turn a piece out..

While reading on Cellini's sculpture, it was noted that the back of the helmet was a self portrait, wonder how many faces on pieces were also self portraits

 

I used to try to make every piece coherent too, then realized that as the 19th century wore on & the craze for cameos got frenzied, what you might call the purity of the images got corrupted. One thing I think of as the Xerox effect: many later cameos were probably copies of copies of copies of earlier cameos, which were probably taken from prints of art work in other media. Sometimes a cutter was unsure of what some feature was on the cameo being copied & he cleared it up with his own interpretation, e.g., a radiant sun instead of a snaky gorgon's head on Athena's breast plate. Suspect feathered wings where they don't belong got there because the cutter was skilled at them and/or they were market pleasing.

I don't know the state of 19th century Neapolitan education, but guessing most cutters were illiterate with a rudimentary knowledge of the myths behind the images, not like the artists schooled in the classics who made the sculptures & paintings the cameos are based on. When tourists were on a Cook's tour, no longer a true grand tour (a much misused term) buyers probably became less concerned with the faithfulness of the imagery, its adherence to convention.

Allow for artistic license & don't go down too many rabbit holes.

 

They were Italian, so they would think in terms of the Roman names.

 

I wrote a lengthy reply on the subject of consistency in cameos with mythological scenes. In the wrong thread. See: CAMEOS: Show & Tell or Ask & Answer