Featured Goddess Flora carved portrait relief. From where and when ?

Discussion in 'Art' started by Golgatha, May 4, 2023.

  1. Golgatha

    Golgatha Member

    Relief d.PNG This portrait relief of goddess Flora looks carved from some sort of bone, possibly ivory ?

    The backside handwritten text tells in Danish who shall have it when the then owner has passed away. So it has nothing to do with who made it.

    The frame measures 14.0 cm x 12.0 cm x 4.5 cm.

    I have no intention about opening and thereby damaging the frame.

    Finding out who carved it is probably impossible. It looks Victorian to me. But could maybe be from France or Italy ? Early, middle or late 19th century ? I hope you can tell me ?
     
  2. Bakersgma

    Bakersgma Well-Known Member

    I think you would be better off posting this in the Jewelry Forum under the major Cameo ask and answer thread.
     
    Bronwen and Any Jewelry like this.
  3. Bakersgma

    Bakersgma Well-Known Member

  4. Bookahtoo

    Bookahtoo Moderator Moderator

  5. Any Jewelry

    Any Jewelry Well-Known Member

    The frame is 14.0 cm x 12.0 cm, which is 3.94" x 5.51". That means the carving is much smaller, and difficult to execute in plaster. The lines are also very soft, usually not a characteristic of plaster.
    Unfortunately the photos are very small, so we can't see or assess the material. I suspect it is ivory though.
     
    Last edited: May 4, 2023
    kyratango, Bronwen and Figtree3 like this.
  6. moreotherstuff

    moreotherstuff Izorizent

  7. Any Jewelry

    Any Jewelry Well-Known Member

    It had crossed my mind as well. But we need bigger pictures.
     
    kyratango, Bronwen and Bookahtoo like this.
  8. Aquitaine

    Aquitaine Is What It IS! But NEVER BORED!

    Before I get off-line for a bit, I enlarged it 4X, and tweaked Noise and Blur without doing any distortion to the image (I hope).....it WAS pretty blurry!! Hoping it helps!

    new cameo-gigapixel-low_res-scale-4_00x.jpg
     
  9. Bronwen

    Bronwen Well-Known Member

    upload_2023-5-4_13-54-19.png

    I don't have Aqui's skill at sharpening things up, but between hers & what I was able to do, I feel confident saying the cameo is ivory.

    It appears to be a portrait of a then contemporary person styled as Flora, whom I have never before seen in braids, or wearing a locket, or in a garment with that kind of neckline.

    More likely to be French than Italian, although there were ivory portraitists in England & surely anywhere people turned their hand to such delicate carving.

    If OP has any idea of the identity of the sitter, he has an idea of the age. Cameos framed for hanging on the wall were popular products of James Tassie's workshop in the late 18th - early 19th, but the ones I've seen were in much simpler frames. Afraid I do cameos, not frames.
     
  10. Golgatha

    Golgatha Member

    I'm impressed about the sharpening ! A computer genius ! Maybe the style of the frame can tell someting about country and age ?
     
    Last edited: May 5, 2023
  11. Aquitaine

    Aquitaine Is What It IS! But NEVER BORED!

    @Bronwen, At the risk of maybe going too far, which can happen IF I apply two different filters sometimes, I think the facial and upper area is refined better, but I also think the lower braid area and dress below the neck suffered some distortion......

    new cameo-gigapixel-low_res-scale-4_00x-sharpen-Focus.jpg
     
  12. Bronwen

    Bronwen Well-Known Member

    To answer the question of material, what I needed to see most was the color & any grain, which my attempt was adequate in capturing. But it's great to see the lines of the carving. She's really beautifully sculpted. A very fine piece, as your sharpened images show.
     
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