Interesting Facts About Cameos:
- Early Greek and Roman carvings featured
images of gods and goddesses, themes
from mythology, beautiful women and
biblical events.- In the Hellenistic era young women used
cameos as charms to express desire. A
woman could wear a cameo depicting a
dancing Eros as a seductive invitation
to love. - Women began collecting cameos to prove
cultural status during the Elizabethan
period. |
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The art of cameo engraving can be traced as far back as the
second and first centuries B.C. to the ancient Greco-Roman
Empires where cameos enjoyed a golden age. The decline of
the Roman Empire also brought with it a period of dormancy
for cameo development.It was not until the fifteenth century during the period
referred to as the Renaissance that cameos resurfaced
as an art form and as a medium for jewelry. The Medici
family of Florence is credited with restoring cameos as
jewelry. At about the same time a very high quality
agate mine was discovered in southern Germany. This region soon became the center of cameo technology
and by the beginning of the 19th century possessed the
most important agate deposits in the world. Over the
past one hundred years, this area pioneered and is
largely responsible for developing and refining the
techniques used to carve and color today's cameos. The once rich deposits of these mines have been exhausted
and the world is now dependent on South America for its
supply of high quality layered agate material for cameo
carving. |
