• Material: Sardonyx Shell, 15k gold tested.
• Size: 2 6/8" by 2 3/8", cameo itself is 2 2/8" by 1 7/8".
• Date and Origin: Circa 1850 Italy. Original fitted case. Scratch signed on the back, probably by Giovanni Liberotti.
• Conditions:Excellent, a few shell lines visible when the cameo is backlit, not visible looking at the cameo from the front.

Museum Quality and huge cameo depicting The Education of Achilles by the Centaur Chiron. I think that there are no words to describe this cameo that I was so lucky to find. The pictures speak by themselves.  The subject is after a painting of circa 1782 (see pictures below) of Jean-Baptiste Regnault (1754-1829) who was a  "Membre de l'Institute National des Science & Arts."  and a  prominent French painter who won the prestigious Prix de Rome in 1776. He spent the next four years at the Académie de France in the company of leading neoclassicist painters Jacques-Louis David and Jean-François-Pierre Peyron. Regnault, too, eventually adopted a neoclassicist style, and until 1787 he signed his pictures Renaud de Rome (Fox of Rome), to disassociate himself from the mannered aspects of French painting before the time of David. 
Education of Achilles by Chiron, is now in the Louvre in Paris. There is also an engraving (see picture below) from Ramboz (engraver), titled L'Education d'Achille (The Education of Achilles) now in the Bervic Galerie du Museum, No. 12, Paris: Early 19th Century. As the painting as the engraving as well the cameo depict a dramatic moment in which the youth Achilles is being instructed in archery by the Centaur Chiron. Unlike most other Centaurs of Greek legend, who were generally portrayed as unreliable drunken brutes, Chiron was both civilized and wise, and was credited with training several famous disciples (between them there was Ajax too, another Greek hero of the War of Troy)  He was known for his expertise in the art of healing and for playing the lyre (there is also a fresco from 47/59 a.c. found in Herculaneum, near Naples, who depicts Chiron teaching Achilles to play the lyre). The constellation Centaur (Centaurus) was named in his honor. Achilles, of course, became a legendary warrior. 
This one is one of the most beautiful cameo I have ever handled, the pictures speak by themselves. The scene takes place in a open area, there are a robe and a lyre on the ground, playing a musical instrument was one of the steps of the education of any good family youth. We can then look at the two figures, one teaching and the other one learning the art of the archery, Chiron appears in all of his male beauty, his human body part is muscled and each muscle seems sculpted, wonderful. Chiron's horse body part is also wonderfully carved, you can see the sculpted flickering muscles of a galloping horse. Look then at his lifted arm and at how it is tense while he holds the arrow, a real work of art. Achilles too is depicted like an athlete, his body is perfect and harmonious like sculpted on marble, I think that this carver knew perfectly the human body anatomy as each muscle of Achilles body is perfectly and superbly carved, you can even see, under the skin,  the shadow of Achilles' wrist bones while they are bent in the act of stretching the bow, simply incredible. The lovely frame is made in Etruscan revival style. This is another masterly carved cameo. A very desirable collectors piece, rarest and museum quality cameo.