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Document Details : Title: Un raro 'grande cammeo' al Museo Archeologico di Verona Author(s): TASSINARI, Gabriella Journal: BABESCH Volume: 95 Date: 2020 Pages: 213-235 DOI: 10.2143/BAB.95.0.3287610 Abstract : A unique and exceptional artifact, a large cameo/small bas-relief, which has never been studied, is kept in Museo Archeologico al Teatro romano in Verona. Of several layers of chalcedony, incomplete, broken and recomposed, it depicts an idealized figure – which may be identified with the Emperor Claudius –, with a wreath of laurel, seated on a throne like Zeus/Jupiter. Important, expensive and rare, the work is evidence for a specialized workshop in Rome. Whilst it fits perfectly into the courtly, ‘state’ glyptic, nonetheless it has no precise comparisons and is therefore a unicum. It is impossible to reconstruct its earlier history as there is a total absence of information concerning this great cameo. All that is known is that it was part of the collection of the scholar Jacopo Muselli, who published it in his Antiquitatis reliquiae (1756). Originally from Rome, the artifact most likely belonged to the collection of the famous and versatile Francesco Bianchini, astronomer, natural philosopher, archaeologist, antiquarian, historian. By this means alone, some idea of the cameo’s cultural background is suggested. |
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