Featured What Is This Scene?

I love that you know all this. So perhaps this piece was a nod to Greek history and it's relationship to Egypt.

 

With tiny chisels & scorpers.

 

New word! I had to look that up - scorpers. Very tiny scorpers. This delicate hand work is the reason I wanted to get a quality cameo.

 

Assuming the guy who cut it knows some history. The dancing girl has an art nouveau feel for me, while the fellow on the left could have been taken from a cameo of 50 years before. It would be interesting to know to what extent cutters of this period designed their own compositions.

 

That's an interesting point. If we could find the source of the inspiration, such as you suggested a painting, then we would know that they were reproducing something. Like this one, which is supposedly based on the painting The Love of Helen and Paris. Otherwise, maybe it just flows like Michelangelo says - the removal of the superfluous material.

 

Jacques-Louis David

 

The cameo was the work of a master carver.

 

The cutter of the cameo made some alterations to the background, & gave more prominence to the brazier, which has been given swan legs. He has moved them from a bed to a chair only. There are many differences the cutter introduced & had to supply from his own imagination.

 

Kiko, you gave me my 49,000th 'like'. I'm going to bed now. G'night.

 

I see. So we shouldn’t expect to find a copy but an interpretation of the elements

 

49,000 and 1

 

Hey....I got the Egypt vibe......and neither of you mentioned the docile critters depicted !!
I do what I can !!

Nice cameo !!!!

 

Your dancer appears to be a lovely example of Victorian orientalism:

...and a time traveller, to judge from her company

 

It is beautiful, Kiko, very unusual, attractive subject and very well made.
I think the guy on the right could be Joseph and the scene could be in the house of Potifar? Presumably before Potifar's wife tried to have her wicked way with him.

 

An interesting suggestion that would ground the cameo scene in a well known story. Most artistic representations seemed to be along these lines:



The seduction has to take place in private or she couldn't accuse him of assault, but I suppose she could have started working on him earlier. There are arguments against this interpretation but that does not mean the cutter didn't have Potiphar's wife in mind. This is certainly more eye-catching & could have been pieced together from pictures like the one Van_Poperin showed us & the other one of the Egyptian scene with the musicians.

 

That is why I thought it would be a nice domestic scene some time before Potifar's wife tried to have her wicked way with him.

 

We did in the Cameos Show & Tell thread. Not all of our conversation there was recapped here. It's my opinion that the lion & dog indicate a ruler rather than some lesser soul. See: CAMEOS: Show & Tell or Ask & Answer

 

I have it. Maybe it's Potiphar shopping for a wife. He was a general, so soldier's gear suits him. Maybe Pharaoh offering him a reward for loyal service.

 

That could be it. The critters would also fit in with his status. A nice night's entertainment.

 

Is there any Egyptian ruler associated with Big cats besides Ramses II? I know he rode into battle with one, the Victorians often depicted it crouched at his feet, though it’s variously a cheetah, lion etc.