Thursday, February 9, 2017

European Gem-Carvers Remembered by Name

Giovanni Antonio Santarelli
Cameo - Abandoned Ariadne
ca. 1800-1820
sardonyx
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Of European cameos and intaglios carved since the Renaissance, the majority cannot be traced to an individual named artist. Those grouped here – from collections at the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg – are exceptional, because the names of their makers are recorded and remembered. Most such makers were Italian, where the craft was most ardently revived – in conscious competition with ancient Greek and Roman models.

Alessandro Masnago
Cameo - Apollo slaying Python
ca. 1575-1600
agate
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Niccolò and Gioacchino Morelli
Cameo - Flora
ca. 1820-40
agate
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Niccolò Morelli
Cameo - Old Man
ca. 1800-1830
agate
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Giovanni Pichler
Cameo - Maenad riding Centaur
ca. 1770-90
sardonyx
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Edward Burch
Cameo - Antinous
ca. 1775-1800
agate
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Niccolò Amastini
Cameo - Oedipus and the Sphinx
ca. 1800-1820
sardonyx
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

 Nikolay Shcherbaev
Intaglio - Achilles Resting
ca. 1820-30
sardonyx
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Giovanni Battista Weder
Cameo - Alexander the Great and Olympiada
1780s
agate
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Giovanni da Castelbolognese
Intaglio - Fall of Icarus
ca. 1540-45
rock crystal
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Giovanni da Castelbolognese
Intaglio - Nessus abducting Dejanira
ca. 1540-45
rock crystal
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Giovanni da Castelbolognese
Intaglio - Venus and Adonis
ca. 1540-45
rock crystal
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Galeazzo Mondella
Intaglio - Venus and Mars surprised by Vulcan
ca. 1500
chalcedony
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Benedetto Pistrucci
Cameo - Bacchus (mounted on snuffbox)
c1800-1830
sardonyx
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg