SUPERB BANDED AGATE CAMEO OF THE BUST OF A BACCHANTE BY ANGELO ANTONIO AMASTINI

In an unusual concave format, with high perimeter tapered inward.
The celebrant of the rites of Dionysus is presented in right profile, a wreath of grape vines in her hair, a goatskin draped about her shoulders.
Carved in three distinct strata, she is lyrically rendered in a white stratum against a gray field. Her wreath and the goat’s head at her shoulder are picked out to startling effect in
an uppermost layer of contrasting glossy black.
Signed in the right field, A AMASTINI.
Cameos
by Amastini complement the collections of the Cabinet des Médailles, Paris; the Staatliche Münzsammlung, München; and the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg.
ca. 1800
In a later gold mount; 39 x 35 mm (1 1⁄2 x 1 2/5")
Ex: London market, 1994.
#5681
Published:
Antiquarium, Ltd.; Ancient Treasures XIX. (London, 2020) p.52
Comparandum:
The British Museum reg. no. 1978, 1002.253