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Image for "Antique" Cameo with Portrait of the Roman Emperor Vespasian
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Image for "Antique" Cameo with Portrait of the Roman Emperor Vespasian
tooltip-icon Creative Commons License

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Image for "Antique" Cameo with Portrait of the Roman Emperor Vespasian
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"Antique" Cameo with Portrait of the Roman Emperor Vespasian Thumbnail
"Antique" Cameo with Portrait of the Roman Emperor Vespasian Thumbnail
"Antique" Cameo with Portrait of the Roman Emperor Vespasian Thumbnail
"Antique" Cameo with Portrait of the Roman Emperor Vespasian Thumbnail
"Antique" Cameo with Portrait of the Roman Emperor Vespasian Thumbnail
"Antique" Cameo with Portrait of the Roman Emperor Vespasian Thumbnail
"Antique" Cameo with Portrait of the Roman Emperor Vespasian Thumbnail
"Antique" Cameo with Portrait of the Roman Emperor Vespasian Thumbnail

"Antique" Cameo with Portrait of the Roman Emperor Vespasian

Italian (Engraver (Inciser))
1600-1650 (Baroque)
onyx, gilded copper alloy mount
(Baroque Europe )

The Roman emperors were popular subjects for cameos (small relief carvings) in antiquity, and this cameo of Vespasian (AD 9-79) imitates that tradition. Cameos of the 16th and 17th centuries imitating Roman carving were often offered to collectors as Roman artifacts.

Onyx was favored for cameos because its narrow veins of brown and white color can be carved to set off a white form against a brown background.

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

C.T. Hawkins [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Charles Newton-Robinson Sale, London, June 22, 1909, no. 114; Dikran Kelekian, Paris and New York [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1909, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Exhibitions

2015 From Rubens to the Grand Tour. Academy Art Museum, Easton.
1971-1972 World of Wonder. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore.

Conservation

Date Description Narrative
1/15/2015 Treatment Cleaned for loan
1/15/2015 Treatment The frame was polished and coated. The crack in the cameo was reinforced from the reverse for travel.
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Geographies

Italy (Place of Origin)

Measurements

H: 3 7/16 x W: 2 13/16 in. (8.8 x 7.1 cm)

Credit Line

Acquired by Henry Walters, 1909

Location in Museum

Charles Street: Second Floor: Chamber of Wonders

Accession Number

In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.

42.237

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Hours

  • Wednesday—Sunday: 10 a.m.—5 p.m.
  • Thursday: 1–8 p.m.
  • Monday—Tuesday: Closed

Location

600 N. Charles St.
Baltimore, MD
21201

Phone

410-547-9000

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