Portrait of Beatrice Cenci (from Guido Reni attr.)
Materials: shell, gold
Date: ca 1840
Size of the cameo: 2 x 1 11/16
Size of the frame: 2 7/8 x 2 1/4
Condition: mint.
Superb and impressive cameo, carved in very high relief to depict the head and the bust of a woman wearing turban.
This rare masterpiece looks like a little and elaborate sculpture. The frame is of the higest quality, very elaborated.
Highly desirable collectors piece.
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This piece is exceptionally rare - I would say unique - for many reasons:
Its artistic quality, the size and the three-dimensional shape (very hard to obtain on the shell), and the magnificent frame
But there are also other reasons making this cameo very interesting. Above all the portraied girl, Beatrice Cenci, and the peculiarity of the painting (attributed to Guido Reni).
Beatrice Cenci (1577-99), the daughter of the rich and powerful Francesco Cenci, suffered from her father's mistreatment. Violent and dissolute, he imprisoned Beatrice and her stepmother in the Castle of Petrella Salto, near Rieti. With the blessing of her stepmother and two brothers, all of whom shared her exasperation at his continued abuse, Beatrice murdered her father in 1598. She was apprehended and, after a trial that captured the imagination of all Rome, condemned to death at the order of Pope Clement VIII, who may have been motivated by the hope of confiscating the assets of the family. In the presence of an enormous crowd Beatrice was decapitated in the Ponte Sant'Angelo in September of 1599, instantly becoming a symbol of innocence oppressed.
This tragedy, often cited as an example of the dissipation and cruelty of 16th-century Rome, is the subject of, among other works, Francesco D. Guerrazzi's novel "Beatrice Cenci", Percy Bysshe Shelley's tragedy "The Cenci", and Alberto Ginastera's opera "Beatrix Cenci". Her tragic history is also mentioned by Standhal in "Italian Chronicles".
For more informations about Beatrice please visit this site:
www.lrb.co.uk/v20/n13/nich02_.html
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