Featured Help me understand what this is and who is depicted.

We like our photos full size SVP:



Central plant looks like barley. Rose on the right? Not sure what the 2 that are alike are meant to be; poppy pods?

 

It seemed to me that there was an arrow in my hand..

 

Almost didn't see that you have added photos of several more pieces. New posts are brought to the attention of others, but edits are not.

The 2 blue ones are glass but the other 2 may well be stone. One popped out at me because I have this cameo in my collection:



My first reaction to the scene was that it was Odysseus & the Lotus Eaters, but Raspe, in his catalogue of the Tassie impressions, where this is #s 8263 & 8264, says it is Night distributing poppies to Morpheus.

The other blue glass impression appears to be a sacrifice scene; beyond that I do not know offhand.

 

I'm sleepy. See there are 3 in blue glass. The one I have not already mentioned looks like Artemis/Diana with her sacred hind.

 

How sad I am that all of this was sold out((( They decided to make a pendant with a platinum or palladium frame from the Roman intaglio of Zeus with Ganemede!

 

I really like this one. A really interesting scene and I love the addition of the sleeping or drowsy(?) men from where she has passed.

 

https://postimg.cc/gallery/qTkMDpY

 

https://postimg.cc/gallery/sZdCYFX
how hard it is to remove intaglio...

 

and what are these black inclusions in the carving? I noticed this on other intaglios that were sold at auctions..

 

Photo

 

Of course, the photos can't convey the beauty. The quality is bad. It's very beautiful in person! Deep carving

 

Please tell me what I can use to leave an imprint from an intaglio?

 

Wax

Sealing wax is the standard but you may be able to get away with using a bit of a fine clay. Wax will give the more detailed impression though. Both are available at an art supply store.

 

I'll look for wax)

 

It has more what I call "mythologic" if the standing figure is Ganymede, and I now think, comparing the 2 heads, that what gives the appearance of Hermes' petasos, cap, is just hair with a laurel wreath, as it is on the seated figure, who is definitely Zeus/Jupiter.

Other elements still confuse me. It would be usual for an eagle to be in front of Zeus, but this looks more like a chicken with the head cut off. The bird associated with Hermes/Mercury is a cock/rooster. It is still possible that what we see on the arm of the standing figure that is not in the act of pouring is a cloak wound around the hand & hanging down. That leaves what still strikes me as a stylized caduceus more than anything. In its time it was no doubt the conventional representation of something, readily recognizable to viewers.

 

Cool. Very interesting. Wonder whether hoop rolling meant then what it would mean now, that the boy is still quite young.

 

I searched for intaglios with a similar plot for a very long time, but I found nothing! Usually the plot is repeated on intaglios, but I did not find this plot.

I do not understand where the bird's head is, where the beak is) it seems to me that the bird holds a hammer in its beak))))

And what does Ganymede have in his hand or on his palm? It is clear that something is pouring from his hands into the cup of Zeus, who holds this cup on his palm.

 

Looking at Tassie impressions with Ganymede as the subject, I realized that Tassie really did not much produce impressions of gems on which the engraving is not fairly realistic. He must have seen such gems in the collections he was given the privilege of accessing, & probably took impressions of everything, but when it came to mass producing them for popular consumption...