- Museum number
- 1978,1002.446
- Description
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Gold corded wire brooch set with an onyx cameo of a profile head of Dante Alighieri, and with a black enamel border lettered in gold Lombardic script. The reverse is marked with a monogram.
- Production date
- 1865 (circa)
- Dimensions
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Diameter: 4.20 centimetres
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
- Text from catalogue of the Hull Grundy Gift (Gere et al 1984) no 922:
The inscription on the mount is from Dante's Inferno, I, 85, spoken by Dante to Virgil. This cameo may have been cut in the year of the six-hundredth anniversary of Dante's birth, which was celebrated with a great festa in Florence in 1865. According to the Dizonario biografico degli Italiani, the Castellani family adopted Dante during the Risorgimento (1831-70) as a symbol of the struggle for the unification of Italy. Mosaic representations of Dante are a recurring theme in Castellani jewellery (see sale catalogue, Christies, Geneva, 15 November 1972, lot.408), while the use of Lombardic script in the medieval style is particularly appropriate. (Charlotte Gere)
See 'Eighteenth and nineteenth-century engraved gems in the British Museum; collectors and collections from Sir Hans Sloane to Anne Hull Grundy' by Judy Rudoe in 'Zeitschrift fur Kunztgeschichte' 59. Band 1996. Heft 2 . Sonderdruck.pg. 211. fig. 14.
See also C. Gere & J. Rudoe, 'Jewellery in the Age of Queen Victoria: A Mirror to the World', London, British Museum, 2010, fig. 468 p.468. Caption: ‘Two onyx cameos set as jewels. Italy, Rome, 1860s. . . . The unsigned, strongly contrasting black and white cameos are characteristic of Roman work of the 1860s and 1870s. The Dante cameo derives from a cast of Nathaniel Marchant’s intaglio portrait.’ Text: ‘A cameo of Dante, inspired by Nathaniel Marchant’s intaglio of the same subject, derives from a bust by Ghirlandaio in the Farnesina and the Dante figure in Raphael’s Disputa in the Vatican stanze. The subject and the medievalizing setting, with its quotation from Dante addressed to Virgil, may have been suggested by Castellani’s friend and patron, the Duke of Sermoneta, an eminent Dante scholar. A date in the mid-1860s would fit with the 600th anniversary of Dante’s death, which fell in 1865.’
The cameo of Dante is in much lower relief than the Marchant cast, and circular rather than oval. The cameo must, however, have been inspired by Marchant’s impression rather than simply having a source in common with it since Marchant’s model was a composite (Gertrud Seidmann, 'Nathaniel Marchant, Gem Engraver, 1739-1816', Walpole Society vol. 53, 1987, cat. no. 116, pp. 69-70, fig. 119). As he notes in his catalogue, he used a bust by Ghirlandaio in the Farnesina and the Dante figure in Raphael’s Disputa in the Vatican stanze. With the Raphael figure at least, Marchant has taken considerable liberties.
The contrasting layers of black and white were achieved by employing the ancient method of immersing the stone in a solution of boiling sugar for several days and then steeping it in concentrated sulphuric acid. This rendered the permeable layer of the stone densely black, leaving the impermeable layer pure white. (Charlotte Gere)
- Location
- On display (G47/dc8/p2/no9)
- Exhibition history
-
Exhibited:
2005 11 Nov-2006 26 Feb, Italy, Rome, Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia, The Castellani and Italian Archaeological Jewelry
2004 17 Nov-2005 6 Feb, USA, New York, Bard Graduate Center, The Castellani and Italian Archaeological Jewelry
- Acquisition date
- 1978-1981
- Acquisition notes
- S J Phillips, 139 New Bond Street, London W1. Original invoice for £567 to Anne Hull Grundy dated 10.4.1974, described as 'Hardstone cameo head, gold mounted by Castellani'. This invoice could also be for the previous item cat no 921.
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- 1978,1002.446
- Additional IDs
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Miscellaneous number: HG.446 (masterlist number)