The “Phillips Family Coat of Arms” as found on the website All Family Crests. I was asked by International Gems in Kelowna, BC, Canada to carve this crest onto Turquoise.

I found this beautiful piece of turquoise at Satori Design in Hay-on-Wye, Powys, UK. This stone is the absolute top quality and just glows with an amazing saturation of color.

I have cut the turquoise, using a diamond saw, into a rectangular blank here. I will continue to grind the stone into a rounded cushion.

Photograph of the finished “Phillips” family crest design carved into the Turquoise stone.

The art of the Renaissance: In the line of beauty

This great show at the British Museum, assembled in collaboration with the Uffizi’s Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe in Florence, is a survey of what happened to drawing in Italy from the beginning of the 15th century to that moment about 100 years later when Michelangelo and Raphael decamped to Rome, and helped to initiate a quite different phase in the development of the art of the Renaissance.

Andrea del Verrocchio's 'Head of a Woman' (c1470)

This show does not merely show us about 100 of the greatest drawings in the history of Western art by the likes of Mantegna, Fra Angelico, Botticelli, Michelangelo, and Pollaiuolo. It is also a kind of master class in the practice of drawing. It shows us how drawings were executed; it explains why the art of drawing came to flourish to the extent that it did; it makes clear to us why drawing was so useful to artists.

Technology helped to make drawing popular. Drawing on vellum, an expensive process, began to be replaced by drawing on paper at the turn of the 15th century. An inventory of 1476 tells us that the cost of a sheet of vellum was precisely 14 times as much as a sheet of paper. Engraving began to make the wide dissemination of images possible. Artists would no longer be dependent on model books as a source of imagery. What is more, the replication of images meant that the possibility of far-reaching fame would be more readily within their grasp.

'Two Cheetahs' by Anon Lombard (1400-1410)

This exhibition, in addition to displaying drawings, gives us all the nitty-gritty of the making of drawings – a sample of sheepskin vellum to touch and to compare with a sample of hand-made rag paper; various quill pens. Samples of model books give us marvellous drawings of animals, often in profile. Animals featured regularly in model books because they were so useful to artists. They could enliven a scene, add touches of decorative humour and irreverence, stand proudly at the centre of an armorial device. What is more, the coats of animals never go out of fashion.

Many of the drawings in this show have seldom been on public display. Most were studio works, not made for the eye of the general beholder. They were private matters, or objects to be seen by a patron alone, evidence of work in progress. We may know the finished altarpiece, but we are unlikely even to be aware that these drawings, many of which were milestones along a long and increasingly potholed road, even existed. Why did they come about? They became increasingly necessary because the great patrons of Florence, Venice, Milan, Mantua made greater and greater demands of their artists. As their coffers and their heads swelled, their schemes of civic aggrandizement grew in ambition and complexity. In order to get to grips with such commissions, the artists needed to make multiple drawings – of figures, of drapery, of architectural details. Of these elements, singly. Or of all the elements together, to see how they fitted.

'Head of a Woman' by Leonardo da Vinci (c1470)

At about the beginning of the 15th century a profound revolution took place in the way art was made in the Western world. In 1413, the great Florentine architect Filippo Brunelleschi discovered linear perspective, enabling artists not only to create a seductive illusion of a three-dimensional world on a flat, two-dimensional surface for the very first time, but also to combine real and imaginary space in a single painting. A new human-centred naturalism, based on drawing from life, entered into art. At the same time there was a quickened interest in the arts of the classical worlds, a new wish to profit by the lessons to be learned from the Greeks and the Romans. This was the very meaning of the Renaissance: a re-birth of learning and skills, a rescuing of that which was at risk of disappearing forever. And, just as important, drawing came to be practised as never before.

Drawing can lay an artist bare, reduce him to the very essence of himself. Stare at a wonderful drawing by Botticelli here called Abundance or Autumn, which dates from the 1480s. It is every inch the essence of the Botticelliness which he brought to an extraordinary degree of artificial perfection in such paintings as Primavera, and which he later learnt to outgrow (somewhat) thanks to the stern, apocalyptic preachings of Savonarola. Here is the typical, exquisitely empty-headed Botticelli damsel, with her diaphanous, wind-ruffled draperies. And it is all here, in the drawing. Botticelli knew to perfection what a Botticelli woman was, even before he scaled her up and plied her with heavenly colour.

You can read more on the Independent website.

I recently received a contact from Ana in Rio De Janerio, Brazil. She has always wanted a cameo that depicts “Eros and Psyche”. Two gods from Greek myth. Eros is the goddess of the dawn. She is often depicted as a charioteer with two horses. She is also known for seizing handsome young men ! Psyche was the bride of cupid and is known as the soul. She is often shown with a pair of butterfly wings.

Ana likes cameos in the style of Canova. Here is an example of a cameo of Eros and Psyche that Ana sent to me.

I looked for examples of this cameo from specialists in Antique Cameos. From sources in San Franscisco, London and Milan. I eventually tracked down a fine example from Jan Campbell at Cameo Heaven.

I have forwarded information on this cameo to Ana. She may go ahead and buy this cameo. However, If she is not completely happy with the design of Jan’s Cameo I will make a cameo for her. We will work together on the design and I will then carve exactly the design that she wants.

UPDATE

Ana viewed the cameo on Jan’s website but has decided that it is not quite what she wants. So it looks as though, I will be designing and carving a cameo for Ana.

Carving with Diamond Tools.

Here I am carving a white on black layered agate. I am using a sintered diamond point, set within a chuck mounted on my gem carving lathe. The picture shows an adjustable drip feed that allows water to flow onto the diamond point. This helps to both cool the stone and flush away debris as I carve the material.

In the second picture I am carving a white on red layered agate stone with the profile of a young woman.

Here is my carving set up for wet, water based carving with diamond tools. I have a drip feed water tank on the upper left which feeds water onto the diamond point. The water then drains into a stainless steel drip pan. There is a curved perspex shield to control any spray.

I have the photograph of the cameo subject poised just above the shield so I can refer to it easily during the carving to check accuracy.

I am using state of the art LED lighting. I have replaced all of my “5000*Kelvin daylight” flourescent tubes with LED lighting at 3000* Kelvin color temperature. This gives a warmer light which is free of radiation and the damaging blue wavelengths.

Also visible are some steel carving tools for “diamond slurry” engraving. These will be used in the next stage of the carving process.

Conservation report on a Roman Carving of a Marble Head

The Portrait Head of a Woman was featured in Recent Acquisitions, A Selection: 2000–2001, MMA Bulletin 59 (Fall, 2001) p. 12, and is currently on display in the Museum’s temporary Roman sculpture gallery.

This report is by Kendra E. Roth is associate conservator at the Sherman Fairchild Center, where she has worked on the Greek and Roman installation project since 1997.

At The Metropolitan Museum of Art a long-term project is currently underway for the renovation of the Greek and Roman Galleries. The resulting increase in gallery space will include a large courtyard, currently used as a public restaurant, to house classical sculpture. During the past several years, in anticipation of this expansion, the Museum acquired several ancient marbles.

As part of the scrutiny to which possible acquisitions are subjected, it is the responsibility of the Museum’s conservation departments to evaluate evidence relating to the physical condition of a work of art, and from this to reconstruct its history. In the case of ancient marble statuary, the archaeological environment, as well as circumstances of display in antiquity and modern times, are important considerations. Human intervention, in the form of damages, wear, and in instances of reuse, repair, and restoration, can also be seen. An experienced eye is one of the conservator’s most valuable resources, and frequently a significant amount of information can be gleaned from careful examination under magnification and ultraviolet light.

A recently acquired Imperial Roman portrait of a woman (Figure 1) can be used to illustrate just how the understanding of an object’s current condition can aid in piecing together its history. As a starting point, evidence of original manufacture is considered. The consistent color and grain of the stone throughout the sculpture indicate that the head was carved from a single block of marble. The carving style on the front of the portrait differs from that on the reverse, where there is less detail, tool marks are still visible, and the marble surface is not as highly polished (Figure 2).

You can read more about this project
here.

More from the exhibition of Bronzinos’ work at the Met, New York. This is a wonderful drawing used as a study for his well known painting Portrait of a Young Man from 1530. This is also in The Metropolitan Museum.

Bronzino’s meticulously executed study was preparatory for the Portrait of a Young Man. X-ray and other technical examinations of the painting have revealed that the design went through several stages. First, the sitter was shown bare headed and wearing an antique-style suit of armor, visible underneath the outline of the collar and shoulder. The drawing shows a bit more breadth in the cheeks and more pronounced irises, the latter conveying a starker expressive quality than is found in the final painting. Both painting and drawing fit well into Bronzino’s work of 1550 to 1555.

This portrait—among Bronzino’s most arresting—was painted in the 1530s. The sitter is not known, but he must have belonged to Bronzino’s close circle of literary friends, which included the historian Benedetto Varchi and the poet Laura Battiferri, both of whom sat for the artist. Bronzino himself composed verses in the style of Petrarch, and some of the fanciful and witty conceits in this picture—the grotesque heads on the table and chair and the masklike face formed by the youth’s breeches—would have been much appreciated in literary circles. The book is doubtless a collection of poems.

This exhibition is the first ever dedicated to Agnolo Bronzino (1503–1572), and presents nearly all the known drawings by or attributed to this leading Italian Mannerist artist, who was active primarily in Florence. A painter, draftsman, academician, and enormously witty poet, Bronzino became famous as the court artist to the Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici and his beautiful wife, the Duchess Eleonora di Toledo. This monographic exhibition contains approximately sixty drawings from European and North American collections, many of which have never before been on public view.
Accompanied by a catalogue, authored by a team of international scholars, published by the Metropolitan Museum.

This sheet is a fragment from a cartoon, or full-scale drawing, that was used to transfer the outlines of the design for the figure of the blond young woman at the left in Bronzino’s Moses Striking Water from the Rock fresco in the Chapel of Eleonora di Toledo. She is among the people of Israel who witnessed the miracle on the rock at Horeb (Exodus 17:6–7). Bronzino probably produced the cartoon fragment about 1542–43, and its high degree of finish suggests that it also served as a demonstration piece for the patron. It is the only extant cartoon for a painting by Bronzino and apparently was used directly for work on the fresco surface. It is drawn in an unusually finished, delicate technique in which the charcoal and chalk applied with strokes of parallel hatching and cross-hatching were stumped flawlessly to create sfumato—very soft, evenly graded modeling in the manner of smoke. The sfumato effects in the woman’s face dynamically contrast with the somewhat rougher treatment of the black chalk in the hair and veil.

The Ptolemäer Cameo

A very good three layer carving in Agate from 270 B.C.E. Can be found in the Cameo collection at the Kunsthistorisches museum cameo collections, Vienna.

Cameos are often worn as jewelry. Stone cameos of great artistry were made in Greece dating back as far as the 6th century BC. They were very popular in Ancient Rome, and one of the most famous stone cameos from this period is the Gemma Claudia made for the Emperor Claudius.

Ancient methods of hardstone engraving were based on principles still in play today. The pieces were worked by manipulating various drills (in antiquity made of relatively soft metal, eventually replaced by iron) against them. The actual cutting was accomplished not with the point of the drill itself but by using the drill to rub powders into the stone.

Here is a 35 mm by 30 mm Oval white and green agate set in a 14 karat yellow gold frame.

Photo of the child for the Cameo Portrait:
There is a special look with this picture. She has a relaxed smile, her eyes display happiness and there is a great balance between the hair, face and clothing. The child was born in China.

Hand engraved inscription on the reverse of the Cameo Jewel:
The reverse of the cameo frame is engraved with two inscriptions; one in Chinese and one in Gaelic. This is to recognize that the mother is Irish and the child was born in China.

Why we chose a white on green agate for the carving:
I suggested using a white and green agate stone as green is a special color to the Irish and Chinese peoples. A cameo portrait of a daughter in white on green agate set in 14 kt gold. This is shown suspended from a necklace chain as a pendant.

Wonderful book on 500 modern Pendants and Lockets by leading Goldsmiths and Jewelry designers.