The art of engraving gemstones can be traced back to ancient Greece in the 8th century BC and earlier. Techniques passed down to the Egyptians and then to the Romans. There were major revivals of interest in engraved gems in Europe during the Byantine era, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and again in the 18th and 19th centuries. At each stage cameos and intaglios, these skillful carvings on a minute scale, were much prized and collected, sometimes as symbols of power mounted in jewelled settings, sometimes as small objects for private devotion or enjoyment. This cameo is a more or less contemporary portrait of the Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola (1452-98), the fiery preacher who set himself up in opposition to what he saw as the corrupt luxury of church and state during the Renaissance in Florence. Following the overthrow of the Medici, Savonarola became leader of the city in 1494, and he and his followers organised a series of burnings, known as the Bonfire of the Vanities, in the Piazza della Signoria. The trappings of success such as mirrors, cosmetics, splendid clothes, as well as what they considered immoral books, paintings and sculptures were seized and burned. In 1497 after a power struggle he was excommunicated by the Pope, and in 1498 was tortured and executed as a heretic. Portraits of Savonarola exist in all media, some from the time of his death or shortly afterward, and this cameo is considered to compare closely to an engraved gem signed by the celebrated engraver Giovanni delle Corniole (1470-after 1516).