XO01 Cameo Gem

Cameo Gem Mediterranean, 1700-1850

Penn Museum, 29-128-673

This Neo-Classical engraved gem (or cameo) represents a bearded man. Even if the inspiration was likely a portrait on a Christian sarcophagus, it has been suggested that the bearded man was actually Aristotle – the beard was a symbol of wisdom. This object perfectly encapsulates the obsession for antiquity that animated the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It was likely acquired by a collector on the Grand Tour, the coming-of-age trip that elite men took to visit cultural and historical sites across the Mediterranean.