- Museum number
- 1899,0718.2
- Description
-
Cameo; onyx; double cameo; obverse: bust of Hercules, facing, with lion's skin tied round neck; reverse: bust of Omphale to right, with lion's skin on her head; in gold jewelled contemporary mount, eight table diamonds and rubies alternately.
- Production date
- 16thC
- Dimensions
-
Length: 1.12 inches
- Curator's comments
- Text from Dalton 1915, Catalogue of Engraved Gems:
In a gold jewelled contemporary mount.
Formerly in the Piccolomini Cabinet at Rome. Given by Charles V to Clement VII, who presented it to the Piccolomini family. Subsequently in the Medina and Bessborough collections.
Story-Maskelyne, The Marlborough Gems, no. 309 (reverse is no. 316); and the original Marlborough Gems, 1791, vol. ii, no. 18; Borioni, Museum Piccolomini Collect. ant., pl. iii, no. 45; Montfaucon, L'antiquité expliquée et représentée en figures. Supplément, i, p. 141, pl. liii, fig. 1; S. Reinach, Pierres gravées, pl. 114, no. 18.
This relief, cut entirely in a dark blue stratum, does not seem intended for Duke Ercole d'Este as Hercules, but to be a convetional representation of the demi-god himself.
Double cameos with Hercules on one side and Omphale or Iole on the other were frequently made in the Renaissance. Cf. nos. 108, 111 and a cameo at Vienna (J. Arneth, Die Cinque-Cento Cameen, pl. ii, no. 49).
- Location
- On display (G46/dc2)
- Exhibition history
-
2019 15 May-9 Sep, Hong Kong Heritage Museum, 'A History of the World in 100 Objects'
2018 19 Apr-22 Jul, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Valenciennes, 'A History of the World in 100 Objects'
2017 28 Jun-08 Oct, Shanghai Museum, Shanghai, 'A History of the World in 100 Objects'
2017 1 Mar-31 May, National Museum of China, Beijing, 'A History of the World in 100 Objects'
2016-2017 08 Sep-29 Jan, National Museum of Australia, Canberra, 'A History of the World in 100 Objects'
2016 13 Feb-18 Jun, National Museum of Western Australia, Perth, 'A History of the World in 100 Objects'
2015-2016 20 Sep-11 Jan, Kobe City Museum, Kobe, 'A History of the World in 100 Objects'
2015 14 Jul–6 Sep, Kyushu National Museum, Dazaifu, 'A History of the World in 100 Objects'
2015 18 Apr–28 Jun, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, Tokyo, 'A History of the World in 100 Objects'
2014-2015 13 Dec-15 Mar, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 'A History of the World in 100 Objects'
2014 23 Apr-01 Aug, Manarat Al Saadiyat, Abu Dhabi, 'A History of the World in 100 Objects'
1997 10 May-5 Oct, Germany, Pforzheim, Schmuchkmuseum Pforzheim, Idol and Ideal-Human Imagery in Jewellery of the 16th Century
Mount Available
- Acquisition date
- 1899
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- 1899,0718.2