Featured Works of art found on cameos

Dancer by Antonio Canova


https://www.hermitagemuseum.org/wps...4g-JDjFFFNNkqM-2j-fQpMhekHHoO_rmtp38A-2qeDU!/

https://www.gallery.ca/magazine/your-collection/your-collection-dancer-by-antonio-canova

The following text is from the website of The National Gallery of Canada:

Canova was known for carving multiple versions of his favourite sculptures, and Dancer is no exception. The first version — now in the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg — was produced for Empress Josephine, wife of Napoleon Bonaparte. When the work was exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1812, one critic wrote, “The novelty of both the concept and the figure’s action, the charm of life and the illusion of movement in this, the simplest of compositions, made all Paris run to it, as if to a new play. I doubt that in the theatre, the most celebrated dancer has ever gathered such a crowd of admirers and received such applause.”

“Canova’s second version of Dancer was commissioned in 1817 by English collector Sir Simon Clarke. It was not uncommon for artists to play with a concept until they felt they had gotten it right. Indeed, it was almost expected that an artist would rework sculptures and paintings, re-expressing an idea and making slight improvements each time.

Canova himself was fastidious when it came to modifying or reproducing one of his works, and never left the new iterations to his assistants. When it came to Clarke’s Dancer, Canova himself worked on the sculpture over the next few years — while simultaneously working on many other such commissions — finishing it shortly before his death at the age of 64. This second version of Dancer is the one in the National Gallery of Canada.”

 

Psyche Revived by Cupid’s Kiss by Antonio Canova


http://musee.louvre.fr/oal/psyche/psyche_acc_en.html


https://www.hermitagemuseum.org/wps/portal/hermitage/digital-collection/06.+Sculpture/56792/?lng=en

The following text is from the website of The Metropolitan Museum of Art:

“Canova made two slightly different versions of this composition. The first, commissioned by a Briton, was later acquired by Napoleon's brother-in-law and is now in the Musée du Louvre, Paris. The second,..., was made for Prince Nicholas Youssoupov and is now in the Hermitage, Saint Petersburg.”
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/188954

 

Art works featuring the Three Graces figure extensively on cameos:

https://cameotimes.com/index.php/profiles-1/minor-gods/three-graces

 

I thought it might be a good idea to have a thread dedicated specially for the original works of art and where they are at the present moment.
In the past, some of the cameos were bought as a memento, after seeing the original. Now, some people may like to do the reverse, at least virtually until this poxy virus goes away.

Dancer with Finger on Chin by Antonio Canova


National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.127590.html

 

It appears to me, two works of art are most often found on “Three Graces” cameos.
The first one:



The Three Graces and Venus Dancing in front of Mars by Antonio Canova, tempera on paper (1798)
The Gypsoteca and Museo Canova, Possagno, Italy
https://www.museocanova.it/the-gypsotheca/?lang=en

The photo above is from an article when this and other temperas were exhibited on loan at The Italian Cultural Institute in New York.
http://www.iitaly.org/magazine/focus/art-culture/article/canova-painter-another-shade-genius

The second one I’ve seen on cameos but not as often:




Spring (Primavera) by Sandro Botticelli, c. 1480
The Uffizi Galleries, Florence, Italy
https://www.uffizi.it/en/artworks/botticelli-spring

 

Thetis dipping Achilles in the river Styx - Bertel Thorvaldsen

Good idea @fridolina! It may help people to identify their cameos. Many of Berthold Thorvaldsen's reliefs, sculptures and prints were used as sources for cameos. Here is one: Thetis dipping Achilles in the river Styx.

Thorvaldsen's drawing (created around 1837) and the cameo. The cameo is not mine, and more pictures can be found here: https://www.antiquecameos.net/cameos/thetis-dipping-achilles-in-the-river-styx445254827



The Thorvaldsen museum is a treasure trove of information. If you want to take a peek, here is a link:
https://www.thorvaldsensmuseum.dk/en

 

The Oath of the Horatii by Jacques-Louis David

Commissioned by Louis XVI, painted in Rome, exhibited at the salon of 1785 (now at the Louvre Museum). There is a very interesting article about how influential this particular painting was, in case you are interested.
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanit...enment-revolution/a/david-oath-of-the-horatii

This isn't a motif I have seen before, but the cameo below was up for auction yesterday (it didn't sell).

 

The Love of Paris and Helen by Jacques-Louis David, 1788 (currently at the Louvre Museum)

Another subject for cameos is Paris and Helen. My cameo by Giovanni Noto uses Jacques-Louis David's painting "The Love of Paris and Helen" as its inspiration.



Noto changed the setting from an indoor to an outdoor setting as evidenced by the addition of a fountain and railing and the removal of the chaise.

 

The Cumaean Sibyl, Domenichino (Domenico Zampieri). Galleria Borghese.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumae...omenichino_-_The_Cumaean_Sibyl_-_WGA06405.jpg





There are other paintings of sibyls, mainly by Domenichino & Guercino, and cameos that copy them, but this is the only one I have in my collection.

 

Galatea
by Perino del Vaga (Galleria Doria-Pamphili, Rome, Italy) 1501-1547

The myth: Galatea was a Nereid (sea nymph, daughter of the sea god Nereus) who was loved by the Cyclops Polyphemus. But Galatea didn't care for him and fell in love with Acis instead. When Polyphemus discovered Acis and Galatea together, he crushed Acis to death with a boulder.

The original painting:


The cameo:

 

Good to have the identifying painting. I see her also IDed as Amphitrite and Marine Venus.

 

The requested companion thread:

Cameo Art Help Needed

 

The Cupid Sellers

Quotation from the Getty Museum: "The notion of capturing or purchasing love through "Cupid sellers" was popular in ancient Roman literature. It captivated the imagination of modern artists with its suggestion of Pompeian decadence.

Cut from the wall of the luxurious Villa di Arianna at Stabiae, a coastal town south of Pompeii, this fresco depicts an older woman forcefully lifting a winged Cupid from a cage and offering it to a potential buyer. Since its discovery in the mid–1700s, this fresco has inspired numerous reproductions and adaptations in diverse media."



An example in cameo form (not mine):

 

Venus, Mars and Cupid in Vulcan's Smithy

Bas relief by Bertel Thorvaldsen, 1810
displayed at the Bertel Thorvaldsen Museum, Copenhagen Denmark

Explanation from the Bertel Thorvaldsen Museum:
"A domestic triangle is being played out here. Cupid’s arrows are from both sides being directed at the main figure in the middle of the relief, the goddess of love, Venus. Those coming from the left have been made by her husband, the blacksmith god. They are red hot like the love he feels for her. But Venus is cold and rebuts his approach. This is seen by the fact that she is unconcernedly hardening the points of the arrows by cooling them in a bowl of water. She is more interested in the arrow being pointed at her from the right by the god of war, Mars. For this expresses a love that she reciprocates, something that also emerges from the way in which little Cupid is placed between Venus and Mars. Cupid actually plays the impossible dual role in the drama of being both the creator of the love between Venus and Mars and the result of it – for Venus and Mars are his parents."



The cameo is from my collection and is a bit worn, but is very similar:

 

Also Thorvaldsen:

https://www.thorvaldsensmuseum.dk/en/collections/work/A424

 

The Archangel Michael defeating Satan
Guido Reni 1635
Location: Santa Maria della Concezione de Cappuccini, Rome, Italy

 

The Madonna of the Chair
Raphael 1514 - 1515
Location: Palazzo Pitti, Florence, Italy

 

Girl with a Basket of Fruits (Lavinia)
Titian 1555 - 1558
Location: Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, Germany





Here is another interpretation- fruits have been replaced by flowers in the basket.

 

Genius of Bacchus
Giovanni Battista Piranesi
18th Century

I would never have guessed this was the Genius of Bacchus. There are quite a number of these prints, each with a different meaning.