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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Bronwen, post: 4362903, member: 5833&quot;][USER=47785]@Emma Vincent[/USER] If you are creating a history of James Ronca &amp; his work, you should have the correct description of this:&nbsp; <a href="https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O135657/psyche-or-iris-cameo-ronca-james/" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O135657/psyche-or-iris-cameo-ronca-james/" rel="nofollow">https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O135657/psyche-or-iris-cameo-ronca-james/</a></p><p>The V&amp;A added the possibility that the figure is Iris instead of Psyche after I contacted them with the case for Iris, i.e., the Rainbow.</p><p><br /></p><p>The first time I ever saw this scene I also thought it was Psyche bearing water from the River Styx at the command of Venus.&nbsp; However, some research turned up this <a href="https://www.artuk.org/discover/artworks/iris-210180" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.artuk.org/discover/artworks/iris-210180" rel="nofollow">painting by Guy Head</a>:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]363773[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>The rainbow in the painting is too difficult to capture in an engraved work; most cameo versions look like this one by Vergé:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]363777[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>Luigi Pichler made an intaglio version, indicating the identity of the subject by placing a caduceus, the symbol of her role as a messenger for the gods, in the field below her.&nbsp; The gem looked like this:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]363782[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>However, the caduceus is so shallowly engraved in places, most impressions do not capture the whole thing and/or do not pick up the signature.&nbsp; The Beazley Archive has several impressions tentatively IDed as Night, none of them complete:</p><p><a href="http://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/record/AB7F2CE7-A2AB-4EE7-B204-CBECFBAF52DA" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/record/AB7F2CE7-A2AB-4EE7-B204-CBECFBAF52DA" rel="nofollow">http://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/record/AB7F2CE7-A2AB-4EE7-B204-CBECFBAF52DA</a></p><p><a href="http://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/record/77996C23-BA76-4623-B122-611FD479DDE6" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/record/77996C23-BA76-4623-B122-611FD479DDE6" rel="nofollow">http://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/record/77996C23-BA76-4623-B122-611FD479DDE6</a></p><p><a href="http://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/record/12FAC558-593D-47F7-BAE9-E11841CB94F3" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/record/12FAC558-593D-47F7-BAE9-E11841CB94F3" rel="nofollow">http://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/record/12FAC558-593D-47F7-BAE9-E11841CB94F3</a></p><p><br /></p><p>I know the paper published in <i>Le Gemme Incise nel Settecento e Ottocento</i> &amp; its completely unfounded assertion that the cameo Ronca gave to the V&amp;A is Psyche.&nbsp; In fact, it presents the evidence that the cameo is one of a subject Ronca was known to have done more than once, The Rainbow, from a medallion by Woolner.&nbsp; Evidently Woolner made his medallion using an incomplete impression of the Pichler intaglio &amp; Ronca followed it faithfully, losing the identifying attribute.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]363784[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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