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Cameo with the Head of a Satyr

late 18th or early 19th century
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 540
The tradition of representing satyrs on intaglios and cameos is an ancient one, stretching back at least as far as sixth-century Greece. This cameo, with its forced perspective and strong, unidealized image, belongs to a rather late stage in the evolution of the representation of the sylvan deity. It was probably made in Italy, the chief center of cameo production in the late eighteenth and nineteenth century, as it is today.

[Clare Vincent, The Jack and Belle Linsky Collection in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1984, p. 189, no. 108]

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Cameo with the Head of a Satyr
  • Date: late 18th or early 19th century
  • Culture: probably Italian
  • Medium: Sardonyx with gold mount
  • Dimensions: 2 1/8 × 3/16 in. (5.4 × 0.5 cm)
  • Classification: Lapidary Work-Gems
  • Credit Line: The Jack and Belle Linsky Collection, 1982
  • Object Number: 1982.60.392
  • Curatorial Department: European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

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