Large Brooch with a Shell Cameo of Aurora after Guercino, c. 1860

In ancient mythology, Eos, or her Roman equivalent Aurora, was the goddess of dawn, who turned the sky rose-colored in the early hours of the morning and was therefore nicknamed "the rose-fingered one". She flew ahead of her brother, the sun god Apollo, through the dawn and colored the night sky pink. Depictions of Eos in a chariot drawn by white stallions have been handed down from ancient vase paintings. Here, the goddess is depicted in the medium of a shell cameo. Aurora sits in her chariot pulled by two horses on a bank of clouds. Three putti scatter flowers over her, while veiled figures symbolizing the night flee to her right. On the left is her husband Tithonos, whom Aurora loved so much that she asked for eternal life for him. The depiction follows a fresco that Guercino created in 1621 for the ceiling of the Casino Ludovisi in Rome. His composition quickly became famous and was reproduced several times as an engraving. We show the depiction by Francesco Pozzi from 1780; the sheet can be found in the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, among others. The large shell cameo from around 1860 uses the different colors of the shell to create the relief. Remarkably, the legs of the rising horses are depicted in three-dimensional staggering, creating depth of perspective in the smallest of spaces. As was customary in those years, the cameo was probably cut in Italy before being exported for setting as jewellery. It is set in gold as a brooch. The piece came to us from Munich and reminds us that even after a bad day, there is always a new, fresh dawn.

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