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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Bronwen, post: 4333595, member: 5833&quot;]I used to try to make every piece coherent too, then realized that as the 19th century wore on &amp; the craze for cameos got frenzied, what you might call the purity of the images got corrupted.&nbsp; One thing I think of as the Xerox effect: many later cameos were probably copies of copies of copies of earlier cameos, which were probably taken from prints of art work in other media.&nbsp; Sometimes a cutter was unsure of what some feature was on the cameo being copied &amp; he cleared it up with his own interpretation, e.g., a radiant sun instead of a snaky gorgon&#039;s head on Athena&#039;s breast plate.&nbsp; Suspect feathered wings where they don&#039;t belong got there because the cutter was skilled at them and/or they were market pleasing.</p><p><br /></p><p>I don&#039;t know the state of 19th century Neapolitan education, but guessing most cutters were illiterate with a rudimentary knowledge of the myths behind the images, not like the artists schooled in the classics who made the sculptures &amp; paintings the cameos are based on.&nbsp; When tourists were on a Cook&#039;s tour, no longer a true grand tour (a much misused term) buyers probably became less concerned with the faithfulness of the imagery, its adherence to convention.</p><p><br /></p><p>Allow for artistic license &amp; don&#039;t go down too many rabbit holes.&nbsp; <img src="styles/default/xenforo/smilies/smile.png" class="mceSmilie" alt=":)" unselectable="on" />[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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