Cameo Signature Help Needed

At the moment, there is a cameo on eBay signed “Perotti”.
Have you come across this name before?

 

I did a quick check for Perotti, but I couldn't find anything. Sorry. Could the signature be interpreted differently?

 

Giovanna Di Rosa has heard of him:

https://www.antiquecameos.net/cameos/allegory-of-the-hope-1383646715





Perotti was in Naples. The tourist guides, with lists of where to go for what that are the main records for the names of cameists, seem to have been digitized mainly for Rome & Paris. I have yet to find one for Naples.

 

Great job Bronwen! I hope the eBay cameo is as lovely as the La Speranza.

 

So that is the one for sale? Cool!

 

It looks so different once it is cleaned. It is a lovely cameo.

 

How were you so lucky to find the GG Adams cameo? How long have you had it? AND you met/know Judy Rudoe!!?!!! Wow! I am hoping she will respond to my email once she returns to the British Museum.

Here are pics of my Ronca cameo. It is very large with the frame- roughly 4" x"6 total. At the top, the bale is almost a full circle with a diameter of 1/2 inch. I think it would have been held on a ribbon, not a chain, with this large type of bale. The silver filigree is almost completely intact, but it is a bit squashed. The carving is very crisp and clear, as is the signature. I need help with the inscription. Latin is not my forte. What I can make out is "iconic image victorious pillars Michelangelo retouched dominico campanari produced by 1850" But that doesn't make much sense.

The subject is Maria Salviati, as painted by Angolo Bronzino. Here is some info about her from Wikipedia:

Maria Salviati (17 July 1499 – 29 December 1543) was an Italian noblewoman, the daughter of Lucrezia di Lorenzo de' Medici and Jacopo Salviati. She married Giovanni delle Bande Nere and was the mother of Cosimo I de Medici. Her husband died 30 November 1526, leaving her a widow at the age of 27. Salviati never remarried; after her husband's death she adopted the somber garb of a novice, which is how she is remembered today as numerous late portraits show her attired in black and white.

 

This cameo is on eBay. Interesting signature - one I don't recognize. Do you?

 

A friend offered it on eBay. Surprisingly, she had never worked out the signature & it certainly wasn't decipherable in the listing photos. I thought it looked like really good work, even though unset & frayed around the edges. I couldn't read it either until I got the cocoa into the crevices. I think she was only a little ticked at me when I told her.

About 3 years.

As frustrating as it is, I suspect you will need to wait until things have been up & running for a while & then, if you have not heard back, write her again. Her inbox will be swamped. Even before this current upheaval she was feeling overloaded, some other staff having been let go. Sometimes I have assumed I am not going to get a reply to a message, only to have one pop up months later.

 

No, unknown to me. Looks 20th century?

 

It says it's an image of Vittoria Colonna [who was a close friend of] M.A. Buonarroti painted it Domenico Campanari produced [printed? published?] it 1850. There are clues among all this:

https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/art...archesana-di-pescara-dipinto-da-michel-angelo

Ronca was copying from a print identified as being Vittoria Colonna. However, there seems to have been some confusion. See the history of this painting:

https://art.thewalters.org/detail/26104/portrait-of-maria-salviati-de-medici-with-giulia-de-medici/

 

I already had 1 closeup photo of the Salviati cameo in my files from when it was listed on eBay. From your description and what I see now of the outer frame, I don't think this was ever made to wear; meant to hang on the wall like a miniature portrait.

 

Bronwen, PepperAnna amazing cameos and tons of knowledge!

 

Hi Bronwen, Thank you so much for the translation! Google translate is notoriously bad. I read the links you provided and found the actual document on Google Books. It seems that Dominico Campanari owned the painting from 1848~1860 and wrote several treatises on it, the first in 1850. Pistrucci published an engraving of the painting, which is likely what Ronca used as his inspiration.

http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1155687/vittoria-colonna-print-ploszczynski-n/

Campanari was convinced that the painting he owned was of Vittoria Colonna, but later this was disputed. There are other similar paintings which include a child, leading to the notion that it was Maria Salviati.

https://www.dorotheum.com/en/l/460696/

Currently the painting in question resides at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (Kress Collection) and is titled Portrait of an Elderly Lady.

https://www.kressfoundation.org/kre...9b281f9f03dd522b645954ec26ec16010335ad71bf769

Wall hanging is an interesting idea that I had not thought of. But given the additional information you found, I think you are correct. Thank you!!

 

I didn't have to wait after all. Mystery solved! Thank you, Bronwen!

 

Wonderful! What other treasures do you have hiding in your collection?

 

This thing has more attributions than the Leonardo Salvator Mundi. What I found interesting was the engraving by E. Pistrucci. The great medal & gem engraver Benedetto Pistrucci had a daughter Elena who was also a gem engraver. Have never seen it noted that she did any other kind of engraving, but seems too much of a coincidence.

 

No self-respecting museum curator follows eBay, so Judy may be quite unaware of this unusual Ronca. It makes an interesting little story, which I'm sure Judy would be glad to add to her records on Ronca, just as she added the photo of the Adams to her files.

 

Few of my most beautiful cameos are signed, & many of my signed ones are not the highest examples of the art, but have special interest on other grounds. This one, signed (in tiny letters) MOSSOP F, is of interest to the National Gallery of Ireland. William Mossop is credited with bringing the art of medal engraving to Ireland in the 18th century. He was taken under the wing of the same Dr. Quin who mentored James Tassie. He is mainly remembered now for his medals, but there are mentions of his having done cameos, although I have never found another on line. I think it highly likely the subject is his son, William Stephen, who also became a medal engraver starting around age 16, when his father died. The NGI provided me the self-portrait of Mossop, Jr.



It may not be the best cameo I have, but it is one of the most interesting. Another is the small, drab cameo of Alexey Olenin that starts here in CAMEOS: Show & Tell or Ask & Answer It was brought to the attention of Julia Kagan at the Hermitage, & she believes it to be the one known to have been done by Peter Egorovich Dobrokhotov.