Lot 282 | A late renaissance agate cameo set in a gold ring. Mythological scene with Hermes. Late 16th century (cameo).

Bertolami Fine Art - Bertolami Fine Art, 1 Harewood Place 1, W1S 1BU Londra
ASTA 107 - Glittica Sessione Unica
Friday 22 April 2022 hours 15:00 (UTC +00:00)

A late renaissance agate cameo set in a gold ring. Mythological scene with Hermes. Late 16th century (cameo).

A late renaissance agate cameo set in a gold ring. Mythological scene with Hermes.


Late 16th century (cameo).


A late Renaissance two layers cameo, later mounted in a gold ring, half broken. The scene depicts Eros, pushed by his mother Aphrodite, showing a book to a seated naked Hermes holding a caduceus (bare headed, bare footed non winged). The scene can be compared to a Krater by the Darius painter in the Boston M.F.A. Very unusually, there is a radiating sun engraved on the top right, a rare mixture of cameo and intaglio. The stone is broken in half, with a little missing (arm of Herms). Chipped on the edge.


Published: Christopher Cavey, Gems and Jewels, Fact & Fable, London 1992, p. 17 (as a Roman cameo).


Stone 18 x 25 mm; ring size diam. 19,5 mm; 4,55 gr.