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A gold brooch set with a fine Neoclassical agate cameo. Bust of Isis.
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A gold brooch set with a fine Neoclassical agate cameo. Bust of Isis.

Anthea Fine Arts

Date 19th century

Period Grand Tour

Origin London, STOCK

Medium Agate, gold

Dimension 5.2 cm (2⁰/₁ inches)

On this large double-layered cameo is sculpted a refined portrait of the divinity inspired by the neoclassical copy after a marble head in the Pio Clementino Museum (Vaticani, Sala dei Busti). 
The Vaticani bust was acquired by Cardinal Albani and represents the Egyptian goddess Isis characterized by a central lotus formed from curly locks then considered an idealization of a female portrait.
The English sculptor Joseph Gott (Londra 1785 - Roma 1860 ) worked in Rome from 1822 carved a marble version of the same head, which was acquired by C.D.E. Fortnum in 1851 and is now in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (WA1889.CDEF.S35)— in the same taste as our cameo. 

Like Gott's version, the present marble varies from the antique model in its broadening of the truncation at the chest, indicating that it was carved by a skilled sculptor in Rome in the early or mid-19th century.

The cameo is signed by a "W" engraved under the bust. 
For a similar portrait on an intaglio see Paoletti, v. II, T. V, n°85, an intaglio of Isis of Campidoglio by MARCHANT. 

Date: 19th century

Period: Grand Tour

Origin: London, STOCK

Medium: Agate, gold

Signature: "W" under the bust

Dimension: 5.2 cm (2⁰/₁ inches)

Literature: PAOLETTI, v. II, Tomo V., n°85, Iside del Campidoglio - intaglio signed MARCHANT

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