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Brooch - Ariel

Ariel

  • Object:

    Brooch

  • Place of origin:

    England, Great Britain (made)

  • Date:

    ca. 1840 (made)

  • Artist/Maker:

    unknown (production)

  • Materials and Techniques:

    Shell cameo set in a gold mount

  • Credit Line:

    Given by Mrs L. M. Festing

  • Museum number:

    M.274-1921

  • Gallery location:

    Jewellery, room 91, case 20, shelf B, box 3

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The carving of cameos from both hardstones and shell was an established Roman speciality. Cameos were often brought home from there by travellers who were doing the Grand Tour (a tour of continental Europe made by wealthy gentlemen, often to complete their education). Designs were copied from ancient gems and from paintings and sculpture. In this case the composition closely resembles a painting of 1826 by the artist Joseph Severn who lived in Rome. The painting is also in the V&A.

Physical description

Cameo brooch, gold scrollwork with shell cameo of a naked youth - Ariel - with a large feather in his left hand, on the back of a flying bat. The treatment of the subject, taken from Shakespeare's The Tempest (Act 5, Scene 1), closely resembles a painting by Joseph Severn in the V&A (mus. no. 1410-1869).

Place of Origin

England, Great Britain (made)

Date

ca. 1840 (made)

Artist/maker

unknown (production)

Materials and Techniques

Shell cameo set in a gold mount

Dimensions

Height: 6.1 cm, Width: 8.1 cm, Depth: 1.9 cm

Object history note

Shell cameo of Ariel on a bat's back, gold scrollin frame. The treatment of the subject, taken from Shakespeare's The Tempest (Act 5, Scene 1), closely resembles a painting by Joseph Severn (1793-1869) in the V&A (Museum no. 1410-1869). Severn, Keats's friend, spent many years in Rome.

Descriptive line

Brooch with a cameo of Ariel flying on the back of a bat. England, about 1840; the cameo probably by the studio of Tommaso Saulini (1784-1864). Shell cameo set in gold. Based on an oil painting by Joseph Severn, On the Bat's Back I Do Fly, 1826, in the V&A's collection

Materials

Gold; Shell

Subjects depicted

Boys; Scrolls (motifs); Classicism; Cameos; Youth; Bat (animal); Feather; Peacock feather; Ariel; Innocence; Adolescence

Categories

Jewellery; Fashion

Collection code

MET

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Qr_O73175
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