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| Domenico dei Cammei Noah Cameo ca. 1480-90 onyx British Museum originally owned by Lorenzo de' Medici |
"Entry into the Ark; on left stands Noah, classically draped, extending his right hand towards an angel descending from above; before him are five pairs of animals: lions, horses, goats, sheep and dogs; behind these is the Ark, a gabled structure seen from the end, with two opened folding-doors, within which is visible the head of an ox; a dove flies down, before the gable, upon which is perched a cock; on the right corner stands a long-legged water-bird; above are an eagle (?) and other birds; on right of Ark stand bearded figures of Shem, Ham and Japhet, behind whom are their wives with the wife of Noah; figures all draped in antique manner."
"The gem is in a contemporary gold frame pounced on the back with floral designs, as described in [an] early Medici inventory: un chammeo grande leghato in oro, chiammato l'Archa, entrovi 8 figure, 4 maschi e 4 femine; 1 agnolo in aria, 1 choppia di chavalli, 2 lioni et piu altri animali, punzonato da rovescio cho fogliami. The existence of the gem among the collections of Lorenzo is thus doubly authenticated, by this mention in the inventory, and by the name engraved on the doors of the Ark [LAVR. MED.] in the form in which it occurs on other gems at Florence and Naples. Its history during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries does not seem to be known; the next mention of it dates from 1737, when Mariette records its presence in Paris, not long before its purchase by the fourth Earl of Carlisle."
In 1890 George James Howard, 9th Earl of Carlisle sold the Noah Cameo to the British Museum. The notes above are by Museum curators.
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| Domenico dei Cammei Portrait Cameo Giangaleazzo Maria Sforza, Duke of Milan ca. 1480-90 onyx British Museum |
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| Anonymous European Gem-cutter Portrait Cameo - Alexander the Great ca. 1580-1620 agate Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Anonymous English Gem-cutter Portrait Cameo - Lady in court attire 1580s agate, enameled gold British Museum |
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| Anonymous European Gem-cutter Portrait Cameo - Emperor Augustus 16th century sardonyx, enameled gold British Museum |
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| Anonymous European Gem-cutter Cameo - Diana of Ephesus 16th century onyx, enameled gold British Museum |
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| Anonymous European Gem-cutter Cameo - Medusa 16th century onyx, enameled gold British Museum |
"The victorious hero cleansed his hands in the water they drew for him.
Fearing to bruise the Gorgon's snake-covered head on the hard sand,
he softened the ground with leaves and covered it over with seaweed,
to serve as a mat for the head of Medusa, the daughter of Phorcys.
The fronds which were fresh and still abundant in spongy pith
absorbed the force of the Gorgon and hardened under her touch,
acquiring a strange new stiffness in all the stems and the foliage.
The sea-nymphs tested this miracle out on additional fronds
of seaweed. Excited to find this yielded the same result,
they repeated the marvel by tossing the plant's seeds over the waves.
Coral even today preserves this identical property:
contact with air induces its hardness and what was a flexible
shoot under water is turned to rock on the ocean's surface."
– from Ovid's Metamorphoses, Book Four, translated by David Raeburn
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| Anonymous Italian Gem-cutter Cameo - Satyr, Nymph, Priapus Statue 16th century agate Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Anonymous European Gem-cutter Cameo - Figure of Victory 17th century onyx British Museum |
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| Anonymous European Gem-cutter Cameo - Maenad 18th century sardonyx British Museum |
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| Antonio Pazzaglia Cameo - Bacchante ca. 1790 sardonyx British Museum |
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| Alessandro Cades Cameo - Cupid and Psyche 18th century onyx British Museum |
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| after Giovanni Pichler Cameo - Tuccia (Vestal Virgin) 18th century onyx British Museum |
"The sacral status of the six sacerdotes Vestales, the Vestal virgins (the sole female priesthood in Rome) was manifested in many ways. Though they were required to maintain strict sexual purity during their minimum of 30 years' service, their dress (stola, vittae) alluded to matrons' wear, their hair-style probably to a bride's. They were excised from their own family (freed from their father's potestas, ineligible to inherit under the rules of intestacy) without acceding to another. It was a capital offence to pass beneath their litter in the street."
"There were several restrictions upon eligibility; most known Vestals are of senatorial family. Though they had many ceremonial roles, their main ritual tasks were the preparation of the grain mixed with salt (mola salsa) for public sacrifices and the tending of Vesta's 'undying fire' (ignis inextinctus). The extinction of the fire provided the prima-facie evidence that a Vestal was impure: impurity spelled danger to Rome. The last known case of living entombment in the Campus Sceleratus (near Colline gate) occurred under Domitian in AD 89. The last known chief Vestal (vestalis maxima) is Coelia Concordia (AD 380). The cult was finally abandoned in 394."
– Oxford Classical Dictionary (3rd edition, 1996) edited by Simon Hornblower and Antony Spawforth
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| Anonymous European Gem-cutter Cameo - Nemesis 18th century onyx British Museum |
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| Giovanni Antonio Santarelli Cameo - Young Hercules 18th century onyx British Museum |