The art of engraving gemstones has been admired since the early days of the Roman empire. It was revived in Europe during the Renaissance, and again in the 18th and 19th centuries. Cameos and intaglios were prized and collected, sometimes as symbols of power and mounted in jewelled settings, sometimes as small objects for private devotion or enjoyment. The fragment comes from a larger relief and depicts part of a ‘triumph’. This was the official honour that a victorious general received from the Roman senate. He was carried on a chariot through the streets in a grand often exotic procession, surrounded by tokens of his victories and trophies from the captured state. The idea of the triumph was revived in Renaissance Italy when the wealthy and powerful liked to compare themselves with the rulers of imperial Rome. There is a series of paintings of the Triumph of Julius Caesar at Hampton Court Palace by the artist Andrea Mantegna, made between 1485 and 1505 in Mantua, Italy, for the Gonzaga family.