Lotto 303 | A neoclassical agate cameo set in a silver ring. Bust of Phocion. 18th - 19th century.

Bertolami Fine Art - Bertolami Fine Art, 1 Harewood Place 1, W1S 1BU Londra

A neoclassical agate cameo set in a silver ring. Bust of Phocion. 18th - 19th century.

A neoclassical agate cameo set in a silver ring. Bust of Phocion.

18th - 19th century.

The character is depicted with a frontal bust and the face in profile, facing left. Phocion was an Athenian politician, military leader, famous for his moral integrity. His iconography spread during the 18th - 19th century and it was engraved by different artists, with the same pose, as Girometti and Santarelli (cameo in agate, signed Girometti – in Greek letters, on antique market n. LU1203427973, referred to an ancient chalcographic engraving, titled: PHOCION ATHENIENSIS Dux Summus, Summus Orator - Cingoli apud Anton Maria Castiglionum). The stone is slightly cracked. Chip on the ear and wear marks. The cameo has a gold frame (probably was a seal), converted in a solid silver ring.  

See: Lucia Pirzio Biroli Stefanelli, La collezione Paoletti (vol.2), cast n. 355 Tome V, drawer 6 n. inv. MR 26989 (cameo in agate-chalcedony signed by Pichler, called Lisimaco, Farnese collection, Naples, National Archaeological Museum; cast n. 33 Tome VI drawer n. 1, inv. MR 27237).

Stone 18 x 24 mm; ring size diam. 20 mm; 34,50 gr.