"Antique" Cameo with Portrait of the Roman Emperor Vespasian

Description 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.

Conservation

The frame was polished and coated. The crack in the cameo was reinforced from the reverse for travel.

Date	Description	Narrative
1/15/2015	Treatment	Cleaned for loan

Exhibitions

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

Provenance 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.

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters, 1909