Mr Wilson on the State of the Arts in Italy. 97 



Derbyshire work might deserve to be more valued, as the 

 materials, especially the black marble, are beautiful. 



I shall now return to cameo-cutting. This art is also of 

 great antiquity, and is pursued with most success in Rome, 

 where there are several very eminent artists now living. Ca- 

 meos are of two descriptions, those cut in stone, or pietra 

 dura, and those cut in shell, Of the first, the value depends 

 on the stone, as well as in the excellence of the work. The 

 stones most prized now are the oriental onyx and the sardo- 

 nyx, the former black and white in parallel layers, the latter 

 cornelian, brown and white ; and when stones of four or five 

 layers of distinct shades or colours can be procured, the value 

 is proportionably raised, provided always that the layers be so 

 thin as to be manageable in cutting the cameo so as to make 

 the various parts harmonize. For example, in a head of Mi- 

 nerva, if well wrought out of a stone of four shades, the ground 

 should be dark grey, the face light, the bust and helmet black, 

 and the crest over the helmet brownish or grey. Next to 

 such varieties of shades and layers, those stones are valuable 

 in which two layers occur of black and white of regular breadth. 

 Except on such oriental stones no good artist will now bestow 

 his time ; but, till the beginning of this century, less attention 

 was bestowed on materials, so that beautiful middle-age and mo- 

 dern cameos maybe found on German agates, whose colours are 

 generally only two shades of grey, or a cream and a milk-white, 

 and these not unfrequently cloudy. The best artist in Rome 

 in pietra dura is the Signor Girometti, who has executed eight 

 cameos of various sizes, from 1^ to 2>\ inches in diameter, on 

 picked stones of several la\ers, the subjects being from the an- 

 tique. These form a set of specimens, for which he asks L.3000 

 Sterling. A single cameo of good brooch size, and of two 

 colours, costs L.22. Portraits in stone by those excellent art- 

 ists Diez and Saulini may be had for L.10. These cameos are 

 all wrought by a lathe with pointed instruments of steel, and 

 by means of diamond dust. 



Shell cameos are cut from large shells found on the African 

 and Brazilian coasts, and generally shew only two layers, the 

 ground being either a pale coffee-colour or a deep reddish- 

 orange ; the latter is most prized. The subject is cut with 



VOL. XXX. NO. MX. JANUARY 1841. G 



