Featured CAMEOS: Show & Tell or Ask & Answer

I have a few, all helmet shell. I try to take pictures before and after cleaning them, but they get buried in my phone Here's the better one of my Silz-Schmolls I mentioned:



A maenad, I think. The cracks on the left don't go all the way through. I like her proportions and how the thinness of the carving around the eye creates a shadowy effect that's unfortunately hard to capture in a picture.

And here's my favorite cameo that I own:



A small brooch that might depict Ariadne--or was intended to depict Ariadne, I think. No ivy leaf crown, but the mount has ivy leaf details. I was really taken with the hairstyle and spent quite a while looking into it before I found that it's often associated with Ariadne, and then I was curious as to why. I found that with ancient sculptures, some show Ariadne with her hair in a bun and some have the neat coils along with it, but the split-bun-with-coils-and-longer-waves style seemed to get associated with her more often in depictions that were made during or after the 18th century (impressions and sculptures, though there's usually some debate on if the intention was Ariadne or a maenad). There's a bust in the Royal Academy of Arts collection that's a cast of a Roman copy of a Greek original of what is now believed to be Bacchus but was identified for a time as Ariadne. A similar note also pops up in the Thorvaldsen museum archive account of a commissioned recreation of the Roman marble bust:



It makes me wonder if the apparently misidentified bust influenced how Ariadne was depicted, or if maybe it was the other way around and there are other depictions of Ariadne in a similar style that I haven't come across that led to the bust being identified as her originally. A few sources say that the Roman bust that was copied is at the Capitoline Museums, but I haven't found any pictures of it. I learned a lot about Ariadne's tale and the variations of how it's told while wandering down this rabbit hole, including an interesting tangent about Libera as Persephone and/or deified Ariadne. Still really love the hairstyle and the piece whether or not it's Ariadne, a maenad, Bacchus, or actually none of them at all.

 

Can't help wondering how much the carver enjoyed shaping those buns...!

 

I saw that one and laughed for the same reason!

 

Two Graces and a Booty!

 

They look like saggy boobs to me!

 

My friend is going to scrap this heavy 14k gold brooch/pendant. I told him to save me the cameo. He said the approximate weight in gold is 16 pennyweights at $92 per pennyweight.

 

That carver did wheat and a butterfly...guess he just liked their looks. I think your friend is right that the gold is worth more than the carving intact. I hope she's removed in one piece for you!