Omia Vincit Amor

Vintage Gold Ring With an Antique Intaglio of Cupid, 1st/2d Century AD / c. 1990

€ 2,490.00 ^*

Content 1 piece

Incl. VAT, Shipping

Vintage Gold Ring With an Antique Intaglio of Cupid, 1st/2d Century AD / c. 1990

Description

This description was automatically translated from German. If you have any questions about this piece of jewellery, we will be happy to help!

We see a standing, winged boy. He is carrying a bow and arrow in his hands. This is the youthful god of love, Cupid, whom we know from classical mythology. In ancient tales, Cupid always carried a quiver of arrows with him as Venus' companion, which he shot blindfolded. Some of the arrows had gold tips, others were tipped with lead. The golden arrows sparked a flaming love, the lead arrows caused indifference. The naked Cupid that we encounter in this Roman cameo was cut in carnelian in the 1st or 2nd century AD, during the Roman imperial period. Carnelian cameos were produced in particularly large numbers in Aquileia, among other places. Cf. Erika Zwierlein-Diehl: Antike Gemmen und ihr Nachleben, Berlin/New York 2007, pp. 136, 143, 144, etc. We do not know where the seal stone, because it was originally created as such, spent the following 1700 years. Presumably it lay undisturbed in the ground until it was rediscovered in the 19th or 20th century. In the 20th century, the ancient stone was then set in high-carat yellow gold so that it can now be worn as a ring again.

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For centuries, owning cameos and cameos was the aspiration of almost all major collections of decorative arts and cabinets of curiosities, from the Green Vault in Dresden to the treasury of Rudolf II and large private collections such as that of Baron von Stosch in later times. The 18th and 19th centuries produced numerous large collections of impressions of ancient seal stones and cameos, which were able to represent the ancient pictorial language of glyptic art almost in its entirety, as they were also an expression of humanistic education. However, the art of cameo cutter has survived to this day in Italy, especially in the Bay of Naples, where it has been passed down from generation to generation. Today, the Scuola dei Cammei in Torre del Greco is the world's only large-scale training center for cameo cutters in Italy. Particularly important for the teaching of stone and shell carving north of the Alps have always been travelers to Italy, who brought home impressions and cut stones as well as engraved shells from their educational journeys to enjoy.

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Size & Details

Omia Vincit Amor

€ 2,490.00 ^*

Content 1 piece

Incl. VAT, Shipping

Our Promise

We want you to be 100% satisfied! For that reason, we examine, describe and photograph all of our jewellery with the utmost care.

You can rely on our years of experience in the trade and our expertise as a professional art historians for reviews of the antique jewellery. As a member of various trade organisations and the British Society of Jewellery Historians, we remain committed to the highest possible degree of accuracy. In our descriptions, we always also indicate any signs of age and defects and never hide them in our photos – this saves you from any unpleasant surprises when your package arrives.

Should you for some reason not be satisfied, please don’t hesitate to contact us so that we can find a solution together. In any case, you can return any article within one month and we will refund the full purchase price.

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Omia Vincit Amor

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