Featured CAMEOS: Show & Tell or Ask & Answer

I think the shell is signed, but would need a higher res pic in different light to be sure.

 

Maybe Melpomene in the painting? I think that is a mask, not a severed head.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melpomene

Of course I could be wrong. @Bronwen will probably know right away.

 

Agreed!

 

And might I just add, that as someone with a BA in theatre, I'm embarrassed to admit that I was so excited that the shell might be signed, I flew right past the THEATRE painting with a "dunno, research later!"

I blame @Bronwen

 

That makes much more sense as she's beside a stage. I did think it was a bit gruesome to have a severed head in a painting
Slight disappointment though that she isn't a betrayed wife or a murderess as I spent a good hour wondering

 

I'll get my loupe out now

 

Another cameo oddity:

 

Winners award to Jivvy for spotting a signature from a photo that I hadn’t even seen in my hand

 

I love awards!

What happens with this line that was cropped out?

 

I alsto think she has a puppet or marionette on the shoulder of the arm that isn't holding the mask.

 

The shell cameo is Thorvaldsen's Night, sort of:

https://www.thorvaldsensmuseum.dk/en/search?utf8=✓&q=night



The figure in the painting is styled as a sibyl/wise woman & has the attributes of a number of Muses. She is looking at a theatrical mask that is ambiguous, can't tell if it's the murder victim of Melpomene or the Bacchic figure of Thalia. The lyre goes with both Erato & Terpsichore, the double flute belongs to Euterpe. The pan pipes would be appropriate to Thalia. I would say she is not herself a Muse but rather an allegorical representation of the performing arts.

First piece is molded, an historical figure, so grubby it's hard to tell whether it's plaster or what.

 

Muse of horror films?

 

Much higher quality of execution than is common these days, although I can't help feeling it's a cry for help!

 

Also seems to have dropped one of the babies!

 

This one is likely Victorian.

 

Not. A. Clue.

 

That is really beautiful. Brave move to even try to copy something so intricate and accomplished. I think the first baby took up rather a lot of room and he scrapped trying to gut the second one in!. Any thoughts on the signature or is the work not of good enough quality to be recognised?

 

...hunh... well... hunh...

 

I would still like to know what's going on with the line that's cropped. Maybe a closeup with clean margins all around?

These things can take a while. In the short time I've been doing this, I've had pieces I've stared at for days before I saw the answer. And others I've stared at for much longer without seeing the answer.

"Oh look at me, I can carve elaborate scenes from mythology, but I have the penmanship of a five year old."

Of course, I know maybe three sigs on sight. Bronwen knows more. So many more.

 

Any idea what part of the world it's from?