Vintage Brooch With Shell Cameo of Aurora After Guido Reni, Around 1950

"For always, always the sun rises / And again a day brings a light for us" What Udo Jürgens knew was equally clear to the ancients: the sun's course across the sky repeats itself every day. Numerous works of art have depicted this procession of the aurora across the firmament, the most famous of which is probably a fresco by the hand of Guido Reni from the casino of Palazzo Rospigliosi. The fresco was commissioned in 1612 by Cardinal Scipione Borghese and completed in 1614. Reni was inspired by Raphael and ancient works of art, such as the relief of the Borghese Dancers, which is now in the Louvre. Following the fresco, but mirror-inverted, the cameo shows the goddess of dawn Aurora accompanied by a cherub with a torch, symbolizing the morning star. Aurora is followed by seven hour goddesses, as well as the four-horse chariot of Apollo. Aurora scatters rose petals and thus spreads the dawn over the world. The goddess floats, against a background of clouds, in a slight upward motion from left to right, casting the awakening day over a coastal landscape with both hands. Aurora looks backward at the torch-bearing cherub hovering above the heads of Apollo's four horses, illuminating the scene. Apollo on his chariot as well as the hour goddesses surrounding him also stride on clouds from left to right, following the dawn. The fresco from Rome was repeatedly translated into the medium of prints and became extraordinarily popular. One of these copperplate engravings, perhaps the 1787 print from the hand of Raphael Morghen, will have been available to the carver of the large shell-cameo present here. We reproduce it here. The design of the fresco has been transferred into the plastic relief in great detail and with routine elegance. The layers of the shell are beautifully separated from each other. The figures shine white against the polished orange-brown background. The cameo is quite strongly curved and follows the natural shape of the shell. The setting of the cameo is gold, making it wearable as a brooch. The large cameo has survived the last 70 years or so in all its beauty. As a reminder that a new dawn always follows. "For darkness forever there is no such thing / There is no such thing, there is no such thing."

Estimate:£671.04

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