Victorian Shell Cameo Depicting D'Artagnan, ca. 1880 & Later

The past and its different epochs represented a great fascination especially for the people of the 19th century. Objects and stories from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance were received just as much as the art and myth of antiquity. It is not only the well-known, great novels such as Ivanhoe, The Battle for Rome or The Three Musketeers that present the past so vividly at the beginning of the 19th century. Architecture and decorative arts also borrowed from these very different eras, but all understood as great and important. Jewellery with cameos in the 19th century often recieved themes from classical antiquity and is often populated with the various gods of Olympus or shows scenes from classical antiquity. That the time of the Greeks and Romans was not the sole source of inspiration is shown by the shell cameo here: this brooch also bears witness to the enthusiasm for days gone by, but depicts a romantic scene between a lady and a gentleman. Sitting on a rock, a young gentleman holds both hands of a lady who leans slightly towards him. We see a two-figure scene in a landscape detail with architectural staffage, as it could basically still occur today. Stylistically, however, the depiction takes us back to the 17th century, to the time of the musketeers, as suggested by the hairstyle of the young man, his high boots and the sword he carries. A wide-brimmed hat with a large feather, laid down on the ground on the far right of the scene supports the ascription. Presumably, the two figures are D'Artagnan and his lover Constance, to whom Alexandre Dumas has set a literary monument. A gold setting holds the cameo securely, making it wearable as a brooch and, thanks to a retractable eyelet, as a pendant.

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