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Message:: [QUOTE="Bronwen, post: 11521036, member: 5833"]I have lately had to reconsider one of my Michelinis.  I always assumed it was a portrait of a woman of his own time, then, as is so often the way, I stumbled into some additional info. This is in a ring in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, an intaglio signed Gnaios, one of the most famous names among gem engravers of antiquity. [ATTACH=full]544201[/ATTACH] The image is a bit easier to make out in the impression: [ATTACH=full]544202[/ATTACH] The cameo: [ATTACH=full]544203[/ATTACH] He left out the scepter, but took exceptional care with the neckline, as he did also with the Achilles.  To me the figure on the Gnaios gem appears to be looking straight ahead (one could say 'stonily') while Michelini's lady seems to look upward a bit. The Met says she may be a Ptolemaic queen, and I have seen speculation that it could be Cleopatra Selene II, daughter of Cleopatra VII and Mark Antony.  She is shell, but the material used is so thick, flat, large & evenly colored that I originally thought she was in hardstone.  I think she probably dates to his later years when he did begin to work in stone, the 1840s - 50s.  She is in a simple gold mount with Soviet hallmarks.[/QUOTE]