top of page
Superb Banded Agate Cameo of the Bust of a Bacchante by Angelo Antonio Amastini

In an unusual concave format, with high perimeter tapered inward. The celebrant of the rites of Dionysus is presented in right profile, a wreath of grape vines in her hair, a goatskin draped about her shoulders. Carved in three distinct strata, she is lyrically rendered in a white stratum against a gray field. Her wreath and the goat’s head at her shoulder are picked out to startling effect in an uppermost layer of contrasting glossy black. Signed in the right field, A AMASTINI. Cameos by Amastini complement the collections of the Cabinet des Médailles, Paris; the Staatliche Münzsammlung, München; and the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg.

ca. 1800

In a later gold mount; 39 x 35 mm (1 1⁄2 x 1 2/5")

#5681

Ex: London market, 1994.

Published: Antiquarium, Ltd.; Ancient Treasures XIX. (London, 2020) p.52

Comparandum: The British Museum, London reg. no. 1978, 1002.253

bottom of page