Cameo Portrait of the Emperor Nero

This cameo portrait of Nero wearing a wreath is set in a plain gold ring. Emperor Nero (AD 37-68) is depicted youthful and smiling, with the dark upper layer contrasting effectively with the pale ground.

During the Renaissance it was a popular test of skill to create works that looked "antique" as this cameo does. Similar to this cameo, Walters 42.1040 is also in the collection.

Provenance

Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object.

Thomas Howard, fourteenth/twenty-first Earl of Arundel, Arundel House, London, 1638, by purchase [William Petty as agent] [Arundel Collection B, no. 27]; Aletheia Talbot Howard, Arundel House, London, 1646, by bequest; Henry Frederick Howard, fifteenth/twenty-second Earl of Arundel, Arundel House, London, by 1652, by gift; Henry Howard, sixth Duke of Norfolk, Arundel House, London, 1652, by bequest; Jane Bickerton Howard, Arundel House, London, 1684, by bequest; Henry Mordaunt, second Earl of Peterborough, by 1690, by purchase; Mary Mordant, Drayton House, Northamptonshire, 1697, by bequest; John Germain, Drayton House, Northamptonshire, 1705, by bequest; Elizabeth Germain, Knole House, Kent, 1718, by bequest; Mary Beauclerk Spencer, 1762, by gift; George Spencer, fourth Duke of Marlborough, Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, ca. 1765, by gift [Marlborough no. 430]; George Spencer-Churchill, fifth Duke of Marlborough, Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, 1817, by bequest; George Spencer-Churchill, sixth Duke of Marlborough, Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, 1840, by bequest; John Spencer-Churchill, seventh Duke of Marlborough, Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, 1857, by bequest; Sale, The Marlborough Gems, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 28 June 1875, p. 68, lot 430; David Bromilow, Bitteswell Hall, Leicestershire, ca. 1875, by purchase; Julia Bromilow Jary, Bitteswell Hall, Leicestershire, 1898, by bequest; Sale, The Marlborough Gems Purchased by the Late David Bromilow, esq., Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 26 June 1899, p. 76, lot 430; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1899, by purchase [Dikran Kelekian as agent]; Sadie Jones (Mrs. Henry Walters), New York, 1931, by bequest; Joseph Brummer, Paris and New York, 1941, by purchase [Brummer inv. no. N5143a]; Walters Art Museum, 1942, by purchase.