Cameo, onyx, Lady in a veil, made in Italy or France, 1550-1600

Oval carving with a white background and markedly undercut dark brown cameo profile portrait of a woman facing left. Her hair is partly covered by a veil held in place by a frontlet and falling down her back to be caught up in a knot on the shoulder. She has a drop earring. The bust is finished at the base by an ornamental acanthus motif. Some areas of the carving are left matt, for the flesh and turned underside of the veil, and others are highly polished.

Purchased with the aid of Richard Falkiner and Thomas Heneage

Purchased from Rosewood Investments Ltd., for £14,000 (Central Fund), in 1978.

Historical significance: Can be compared with a group of cameos of similar style and manufacture, including the heads of a Roman Emperor, that of Attila and the commesso moorish Diana in the Kunstkammer of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (Inv.-Nrs.XII 138, 155 & 120). Thought to be North Italian in origin and described by Kris as Italian, two of this group were catalogued as French for the exhibition 'Die Kunst des Steinschnitts' in Vienna in 2002/03. The cameo is, however, comparable in terms of the elaborate coiffure and treatment of ornament and opulent drapery, to the medals of Pastorini, Bombarda and Abondio - for example to the latter's portrait of Caterina Riva dated by Attwood to the 1570s. Appears as Tassie cast no.14732, 'Portrait of an unknown Lady (Stosch)'. The claim that the cameo once formed part of the Arundel collection and has descended from it via the collections of the Dukes of Marlborough was argued at the time of acquisition in 1978 by Charles Avery, and by Diana Scarisbrick in her catalogue entry for the exhibition 'Thomas Howard Earl of Arundel' at the Ashmolean Museum in 1985/6. The case is based on its similarity to descriptions of a gem which can be traced back to an MS catalogue of the Arundel gems and thence via two catalogues of the Marlborough gems. The Earl of Arundel bought a large collection of gems from Daniel Nys, the Venetian dealer who facilitated the sale by the Gonzaga to Charles I of the Mantegna Triumphs.

Demonstrates the revival of interest during the Renaissance of the classical art of engraving gem-stones. The portrait recalls the style of the Mannerist painters and medallists of northern Italy.

North Italy or France

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 engraver has cut this bust entirely from the dark upper layer of the stone, using the contrast with the white lower layer to full effect. Matt and polished areas suggest the different textures of flesh, hair, fabric and jewellery. This cameo was probably formerly in the collection of the gem collector Thomas Howard, 2nd Earl of Arundel.

A.45-1978