Artfully Carved Red Coral Brooch, Circa 1870

This brooch is a true work of art. It is a branch of coral from the Mediterranean that was carved by hand and mounted as a brooch. The work was created around 1870, most likely in Italy, where Mediterranean corals have always been fished and turned into all kinds of jewellery by local artisans. The motif of the brooch takes us back to classical antiquity. It shows a Bacchante, a devotee of the wine god Bacchus, who can be identified by the vine leaves in her hair. What is unusual, however, is that she is holding a bird on her chest: an unusually small eagle, which is actually associated with the mythological figure of Hebe and represents Zeus in animal form. How can this iconography, which is otherwise unknown in art history, be explained? Presumably, the cameo cutter was familiar with prints based on famous works of art, which were usually displayed in the workshops as models, but as a craftsman at the time, he himself had not enjoyed a classical education. This explains the unusual and decorative, but in terms of content incoherent, combination of two mythological subjects. An unusual and exciting object that gives us a (perhaps unintentional) insight into the reality of cameo cutter life at the time.

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