Thursday, October 3, 2019

Extraordinary Cameos by Alessandro Masnago in Vienna

Alessandro Masnago
Aurora
ca. 1590-1600
agate cameo with enameled-gold mount
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Alessandro Masnago
Neptune pursuing Amphitrite
ca. 1600-1620
agate cameo with silver-gilt mount
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Alessandro Masnago
Abduction of Europa
ca. 1590-1600
agate cameo with enameled-gold mount
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Alessandro Masnago
Abduction of Proserpine
ca. 1590
agate cameo with enameled-gold mount
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Alessandro Masnago
Latona beseeching the Peasants for Water
ca. 1590-95
agate cameo with enameled-gold mount
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Alessandro Masnago
Latona transforming the Peasants into Frogs
ca. 1600
jasper cameo with enameled-gold mount
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

from Tamburlaine the Great

What is Beauty? saith my sufferings then,
If all the pens that poets ever held
Had fed the feeling of their master's thoughts,
And every sweetness that inspired their hearts,
Their minds, and muses on admired themes,
If all the heavenly quintessence they still
From their immortal flowers of Poesy,
Wherein, as in a mirror, we perceive
The highest reaches of a human wit,
If these had made one poem's period
And all combined in Beauty's worthiness,
Yet should there hover in their restless heads
One thought, one grace, one wonder at the least,
Which into words no virtue can digest.

– Christopher Marlowe (1590)

Alessandro Masnago
Aeneas in the Underworld
ca. 1590-1600
agate cameo with enameled-gold mount
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Alessandro Masnago
Atalanta and Hippomenes
ca. 1590-1600
agate cameo with enameled-gold mount
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Alessandro Masnago
Orpheus enchanting the Animals with Music
ca. 1600-1620
agate cameo with enameled-gold mount
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Alessandro Masnago
Leda and the Swan
ca. 1590-1600
agate cameo with enameled-gold mount
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Alessandro Masnago
Jupiter and Io
ca. 1590-1600
agate cameo with enameled-gold mount
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Alessandro Masnago
Jason and the Golden Fleece
ca. 1590-1600
agate cameo with enameled-gold mount
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Alessandro Masnago
Gods of Olympus
ca. 1590-1600
onyx cameo with enameled-gold mount
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Alessandro Masnago
Diana with her Nymphs
ca. 1600
agate cameo with enameled-gold mount
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna