CAMEO (It. coninoyo, Fr. reou'e, Med. Lat. catnnu•ns). (.;eats cut in relief are called cameos. in opposition to those that are hollowed out so as to yield a raised impression, which are ealled intaglios. The term en men. however, is applied more especially to those diminutive pieces of sculpture which are prepared from precious stones having two strata or layers of different colors, the undermost of which is left to form the background, the object to be represented being cut in the upper (We. The stone generally used for this purpose by the aneients was the sardonyx.
True cameos were probably not made before the Third Century ex.. though in very earls' times we find the backs of seals decorated with figures in relief, so especially in the searabal, seals decorated on the hack with the sacred beetle of Egypt. As precious stones were used in the Orient and among the Greeks after the conquests of Alexander for many deeorative pur poses, the Greek artistic sense sought to raise this decoration to a higher plane, and this seems to have led to the carving of the gems into re liefs. At this period cameos were very exten sively used, not only as personal ornaments, but in cups, vases, candelabra, and other objects of domestic luxury. Patera and other vessels were frequently worked out of a single stone, upon which were exhibited a whole series of figures of the most exquisite workmanship. Many- of the antique cameos which have been preserved are wonderfully beautiful, both in design and execution. Of the Alexandrian cameos, probably the finest is the "Tazza Farnese," a shallow dish cut from a single sardonyx, and now in Naples. Other very fine specimens of the early period are the Gonzaga cameo in Saint Petersburg and a companion in Vienna, containing the portraits in profile of a man and a woman. They are com monly said to he portraits of Ptolemy II. and his Queen. Arsinoe. but are quite as probably Alexander the Great and Olympias (so Furt wangler). Of cameos of the Roman time, many fine specimens are to be found in the Continental museums. Especially noteworthy are the Gemma Aup;ustea in Vienna. and the large sardonyx in Paris: both show Roman emperors. Augustus and Tiberius, triumphing over barbarians. Very celebrated is the "Cupid and Psyche" formerly in the Marlborough collection. now in the Bos
ton Museum of Fine Arts, by Tryphon, who is supposed to have lived in the time of Augustus. The stones on which many of these cameos are cut are of surprising, and, in modern times. un equaled size and perfection. Cameos do not seem to have been made in medheval times: but the art revived in Italy, under the •auspices of the Medici. and the production of cameos, both in pietra dune and in shell, has there become a branch of art manufacture of considerable im portance. Impressions from antique cameos in glass. sulphur, porcelain, and other materials are produced in many places, and, for artistic purposes, possess all the value of the originals.
The manufacture of cameos from artificial substances was not unknown to the ancients. One of the most beautiful specimens of an imita tion of cameo in glass is the famous Barherini or Portland vase, now in the British Museum. The ground is blue. the figures, which are in low relief. being of a delicate, half-transparent white. (See PoterLAND VASE.) Another example is a beautiful vase, similar in color, in the Naples Museum, the figures of which represent a Bacch analian sacrifice. Many fragments of the same kind of manufacture exist in other cabinets, and from it the modern Wedgwood ware (q.v.) was imitated.
A shell cameo is a cutting in relief on a precious stone or a shell. it is opposed in meaning to intaglio, which signifies a cutting into the stone or shell. In fur thermore. only gems of a uniform color are used. while in mimeo engraving or eutting it is desir able to choose such stones or shells as possess layers of varying colors, such as onyx. agate, or tropical sea-shells. These differing tints are skillfully utilized by intelligent engravers. so that at different depths of the cutting very beautiful and effective gradations of color are obtained. Shell. perhaps. gives the most deli results, owing to the nearness of the color to that of tlesh, and the general use math> of the human figure and head as subjects for cameo engraving:. The art• is one of great antiquity, and the engraving of precious stones and of shells in distinct bands of color has been prac ticed since about B.C. 150. Probably stone and shell, more or less engraved as ornament, talis man, and seal, are of still more remote times.