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Lot Essay
This fine two-layered sardonyx cameo is sculpted with a profile bust of the goddess Isis. The artist reserved his subject to the brown layer, which stands out against the white ground. The goddess wears a broad collar overlapped by a long wig and a vulture headdress topped with a diminutive Isis crown formed of horns and a solar disc. It may be that the subject was intended to be a Ptolemaic Queen in the guise of Isis.
The carving of cameos was invented in Ptolemaic Alexandria during the 3rd century B.C. Cameos and a large number of garnet intaglios with similar subjects were popular in the later Ptolemaic period and were associated with the royal cult (see p. 194 in J. Spier, et al., Beyond the Nile: Egypt and the Classical World). The type continued in popularity in the Roman period and it has been suggested by Plantzos (op. cit., p. 57) that the present cameo is Egyptianizing Roman.
The 18th century jeweled mount is set with peridot, amethyst and garnet and is typical of gems from the Bessborough Collection. William Ponsonby, the 2nd Earl of Bessborough, was a dedicated antiquarian who amassed an impressive collection of cameos and intaglios. His travels throughout Italy in 1736-1738 with painter J. E. Liotard acquainted the Englishman with a number of dealers in ancient art. The Earl's collection was displayed at his Roehampton house before the gems were sold to the Fourth Duke of Marlborough soon after his acquisition of the Arundel gems (see Boardman et al., op. cit., pp. 125-127).
The carving of cameos was invented in Ptolemaic Alexandria during the 3rd century B.C. Cameos and a large number of garnet intaglios with similar subjects were popular in the later Ptolemaic period and were associated with the royal cult (see p. 194 in J. Spier, et al., Beyond the Nile: Egypt and the Classical World). The type continued in popularity in the Roman period and it has been suggested by Plantzos (op. cit., p. 57) that the present cameo is Egyptianizing Roman.
The 18th century jeweled mount is set with peridot, amethyst and garnet and is typical of gems from the Bessborough Collection. William Ponsonby, the 2nd Earl of Bessborough, was a dedicated antiquarian who amassed an impressive collection of cameos and intaglios. His travels throughout Italy in 1736-1738 with painter J. E. Liotard acquainted the Englishman with a number of dealers in ancient art. The Earl's collection was displayed at his Roehampton house before the gems were sold to the Fourth Duke of Marlborough soon after his acquisition of the Arundel gems (see Boardman et al., op. cit., pp. 125-127).