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