Monday, November 27, 2017

European Cameos, 16th-18th century

Anonymous Italian gemcutter working in Milan
Cameo - Venus and Adonis in a Landscape
ca. 1575
sardonyx
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Alessandro Masnago
Cameo - Sleeping Shepherdess in Moonlit Landscape
ca. 1590
agate
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

NOVEMBER

Gemlike the air, the sun so bright above,
you look for blossoms on the apricot trees,
recall the bitter whitethorn scent you love
                         and sniff the breeze.

But the whitethorn's withered, the brittle boughs
hatch their black schemes against the empty blue,
and earth rings hollow now beneath the blows
                         of every shoe.

Around you, silence, but for sighs that spill
in upon every gust, from grove and wood:
frail settlements of leaves.  This is the chill
                         summer of the dead.

 Giovanni Pascoli (1855-1912), translated by Geoffrey Brock

Anonymous Italian gemcutter
Cameo - Bust of Emperor Hadrian
16th-17th century
sardonyx
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Anonymous Italian gemcutter
Cameo - Bust of a Roman
17th century
chalcedony
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Anonymous Netherlandish gemcutter
Cameo - Cupid before Jupiter among clouds
17th century
argonite
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Anonymous Italian gemcutter
Cameo - Head of Youth
(made for Pope Paul V Borghese)
early 17th century
agate
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

A MEMORY

I cannot sleep.  I see a street, some pines,
and in my heart the old anxieties gather.
We used to go there alone, to be together,
another boy and I.

It was Passover, the old folks' rites arcane
and slow. And if he doesn't care enough,
I thought, and if he doesn't come tomorrow?
Tomorrow he did not come: a new pain.
Spasms that evening of grief. Now I know
friendship wasn't what we had in our grove;
what we had was love 

the first. And such love then, and what a glow
of joy, between the hills and sea of Trieste . . .
But why, tonight, am I unable to rest,
when all this happened fifteen years ago?

 Umberto Saba (1883-1957), translated by Geoffrey Brock

Anonymous Italian gemcutter
Cameo - Bust of Athlete
ca. 1700-1750
sardonyx
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Anonymous Italian gemcutter
Cameo - Sphinx
18th century
jasper with quartz
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Giovanni Pichler (Rome)
Cameo - Young Woman with Torch and Vase
ca. 1770-90
sardonyx
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Giovanni Pichler (Rome)
Cameo - Portrait of Couple in Roman style
ca. 1775-80
sardonyx
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Giovanni Pichler (Rome)
Cameo - Seated Woman reading
ca. 1770-90
sardonyx
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Giovanni Pichler (Rome)
Cameo - Head of Young Man in Roman style
ca. 1775-80
sardonyx
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

NOVEMBER

Young men and old men
gather again in groups
among the sultry ruins of Rome
over which plane-trees let fall,
with a papery sound,
leaves turned gold.
The young men tell the old men
what is to their liking;
the old men make believe they do not hear.

– Aldo Palazzeschi (1885-1974), translated by Frederick Mortimer Clapp

Anonymous Italian gemcutter
Gryllos Cameo - Youth, Bearded man, Satyr, and Ram
ca. 1775-1825
onyx
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Anonymous Italian gemcutter
Cameo - Head of a Satyr
ca. 1775-1825
sardonyx
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Nathaniel Marchant
Cameo - Portrait of Emma Hart, later Lady Hamilton
ca. 1786-87
chalcedony
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York