Diomedes and the Palladium
Not on view
Some of the grandest figures of their respective eras, from Lorenzo the Magnificent to Catherine the Great, were ardent collectors of ancient glyptics. Connoisseurs were well aware of the praise that the writers of antiquity had heaped on specific cameo carvers. Copies initially reached the wider public in the form of bronze replicas and, later, engravings. Inevitably, the rage for cameos entailed a certain amount of forgery and twisting of facts.
The carnelian original, owned by Pope Paul II, then by Lorenzo de' Medici, is now in the Museo Archeologico, Naples. Such collector's pieces became famous through cast copies and are often more familiar to us as positive impressions than as intaglios.
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