Treasure Hunt for Antique Cameo

The sitter was wrongly identified on the reverse side as Marguerite of Tuscany. Actually, the sitter is Marguerties mother, Maria Magdalena de Medici.Maria Magdalena de Medici was the sister of the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II, and wife of Cosimo II, Grand Duke of Tuscany.The Cameo surfaced in the late 1890s in New Orleans. It was an heirloom of the prominent French Emigre Family and came from a larger jeweler; which contained additional portrait cameos. The cameo was created from a portrait medal commissioned in 1613 by Marie de Medici, Queen of France.The artist that created the medal and probably the cameo was Guillaume Dupre, director of the royal mint and engraver to the French court. The same commission required Dupre to create medals for the following: Cristina of Lorraine, Francesco IV of Gonzaga, Duke of Milan, Cardinal Maffeo Barberini (future Pope Urban VIII), and Marc Antonio Memmo, the Doge of Venice. The Roman numeral V on the reverse may indicate that this cameo is one of five, one for each of these five personages. If such a companion cameo can be found, it will serve to authenticate the cameos as significant historical artifacts. If you have any information please contact: wboyd001@sc.rr.com

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• antique
• art
• arts
• cameo
• collection
• collectors
• decorative
• Dupre
• Galileo
• Guillaume
• history
• medallic
• Medici
• museum