Cameo Signature Help Needed

Different women, similar hairstyle.

Agrippina the Younger, bust by an unknown artist; in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Julia-Agrippina



"Minatia Polla" Museo Nazionale Romano
Roman marble portrait; the so-called Minatia Polla now in the National Museum (Terme), Rome. Discovered in 1880 at the tomb of C. Sulpicius Platorinus in Rome.
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/854417360531717521/


A Roman Woman. Copenhagen, New Carlsberg Glyptotek (København, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek)
Marble. 30—50 CE. Height 39 cm.
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/425871708488325551/


https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/574349758719787140/


https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/648096202606737409/

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Shell-Ca...signed-Lamont/184570037857#vi__app-cvip-panel
Well done!

 

A very nice result indeed.

 

Forgot to tell you how much I like your new Psyche. Charles canted the head to an unusual angle.

[not mine]

 

Thank you!
She is “Psyche abandoned”.

There is another one. [not mine either]

She is not supposed to be smiling. Her lover, Cupid, has just left her.

The tilt of the head and rolled up eyes are based on a sculpture by Augustin Pajou and the wings are from another one by Pietro Tenerani.

https://www.louvre.fr/en/oeuvre-notices/psyche-abandoned


https://www.uffizi.it/en/artworks/psyche-abandoned

 

Another source of this Psyche is the cameo on the viewer's far right of the V&A's 'Spartan' tiara:



There is an Eros counterpart on the left. The two are shown on this page from the Paoletti Impressions in Glass:

 

So I posted about this cameo a few weeks ago. The signature "Scipio" was clearly visible. Since then I have found another "Scipio" signature and a "Scipioni" signature by the same hand.

I did some researching on the name, but found nothing. I went back to the first cameo above and looked closer, trying to figure out if Scipio could be deciphered as something else. That's when I noticed what looked like a "C" underneath the pin stem. After corresponding with the seller, she took a few more pictures. Guess what "C" signature was under the pin stem???



So now I am thinking that Scipio might be the dealer, not the carver. The three cameos I found have different carving quality, so this would make sense. Your thoughts?

 

I'm very much enjoying this thread now that it has become so active. I don't have much to contribute, but am learning -- mostly learning about what I don't know!

 

I find it quite interesting that the cameos on the 'Spartan' tiara are made out of white glass mounted on carnelian and chalcedony.
Who was Paoletti?

 

{Per Wikipedia: Pietro Paoletti was known to have made plaster cast cameos or Intaglios. This was a peculiar art form from the early, pre-photographic, 19th century: small reliefs were sculpted to depict either parts or all of major works. The impressions of these reliefs were then pressed on to oval or round plaster medallions. These mementoes were then bound into volumes. They were mementoes of prominent works in Rome. For example, one set by Paoletti had works from the Capitoline, (Rome), Uffizi, the Louvre, Capodimonte, and Vatican museums; as well as works from Villa Albani and by Canova, Gibson, and Thorvaldsen.[7] His brother Giuseppe Paoletti was a vedute painter.

One of my pie in the sky fantasy purchases would be to get my hands on these bound volumes of plaster cameos. They are wicked expensive and full sets are rare. This 12 volume set sold for $50,000 in 2015.



The "book" covers opened in the front and back, so that there were 2 sets of cameos in each book. The plaster cameos were numbered and corresponded to the inventory list on each cover, which listed the subject and in some circumstances, where it was copied from (Canova and Thorvaldson had lots of their work copied into cameos).

I believe there are books like the page Brownen showed that actually list each cameo in the Paoletti offerings, but I can't remember the title.

 

Very interesting. Thank you very much for the detailed explanation.
So, going by what I know now about Paoletti, I’m assuming, he would have made his plaster cast of Psyche as a memento of a major work of art.
Afterwards, I’m guessing, his plaster casts became the prime source for the other cameo carvers’ Psyche, like the one I have by Schmoll.

 

The resource I am using is the 2 volume La collezione Paoletti/Stampi in vetro per impronte di intagli e cammei. In tomo VI, impressions 1 - 200 are all of gems engraved by Antonio Santarelli; Psyche & Eros are #s 183 & 184. So the paste cameos in the tiara are also copies. I've seen her in Berlin Iron too:



The collection the books catalogue is huge, thousands of impressions from thousands of years. I have only dipped in here & there as needed, not gone through them in any systematic way, but it appears that few, if any, of the impressions were taken from modeling by Paoletti. Gem engravers of the 18th & 19th century, such as the Pichlers, took inspiration from the sculptural works of Canova, Thorvaldsen, Gibson, etc., converting them to intaglios. For example, Luigi Pichler was the author of many of Paoletti's Works of Canova.

 

Well, well, well. Carnesecchi does pop up, doesn't he? I suppose it's possible Scipio(ni) did the metal work, but dealer/shop feels more likely to me.

 

I hadn't thought of that- the metal work. Hmmmm. That's another option. I will have to look at the frames of the 3 cameos again. Thanks for the suggestion, Bronwen!

 

Hi Fridolina

I didn't know what Montrose agate was, so I looked it up. While learning about it, I ran across this site. Maybe you can get a replacement from here? I hope you can find the right agate for your brooch, which is so lovely. Good luck!

https://scottishgemstones.com/

 

Amazing! Looks simple at first but it isn’t. Like going down the rabbit hole. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.

Thank you PepperAnna!

 

Cameo of Erato. Antonio Santarelli.

Bonhams, London
11 Dec 2017
Sold for £1,625
https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/24171/lot/413/

The same cameo, less than a year later.
Bertolami, London
9 November 2018

Sold for £4,900
https://auctions.bertolamifinearts.com/en/lot/39992/an-agate-cameo-by-ga-santarelli-mounted-/

Either cameos become more appreciated or the money gets cheaper.

From Bertolami’s catalog and exactly as Bronwen said:
“Such model most likely derives from an ancient one, as evidenced by the cast (within the Paoletti repertoire) classified as a work by Antonio Santarelli (1758-1826) and referred to as "Citerista, da una pittura di Ercolano" - "zitherist/guitarist, from a painting in Ercolano" (see the wall paintings of Pompeii). The cameo is signed SANTARELLI F.”

Bronwen, you should be a consultant to a posh auction house.

 

As the cities buried by the eruption of Vesuvius were excavated, the finds published & eventually opened to the public, frescoes found at Pompeii & Herculaneum became major influences on art of the day, including glyptics.









Two sculptures by Canova, inspired by the dancers of Pompeii & Herculaneum, also found their way into the work of engravers such as Giovanni & Luigi Pichler as well as lesser mortals.



If I were going to turn La Citerista (the kithara player) into a Muse I would make her Terpsichore, as she is in a dancing posture.

I see Bertolami put huge estimates on the glyptics in that auction. Few reached expectations. A couple of glass copies of Poniatowski gems exceeded them.

 

https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/...aign=auction-alert&utm_content=lot-image-link

 

For a list of names of some contemporary cameo cutters:

https://www.cameoitaly.com/

On the left under Artisti, drop down Tutti.