• Material : Sardonyx Shell, 15k gold tested.
• Size: 2 6/8" by 2 2/8", cameo itself is 2 1/2" by 2".
• Date and Origin: Circa 1850 Italy. Signed Saulini F. on the right side. Original fitted case.
• Conditions: A couple of internal lines,only barely visible when cameo is backlit, otherwise immaculate.

Museum Quality cameo depicting a rarest subject never seen before now, Hymen and Cupid after a bas relief made through 1842 and 1844 by Bertel Thorvaldsen executed in Thorvaldsen's studio in Rome.
This one is very large and signed by Saulini, the signature is clearly visible on the right side of the cameo. The little god of love, Cupid, makes sure with his arrow that love bursts into flame. And the god of marriage, Hymen or Hymenaios, ensures the legal union of those involved, symbolized by the two torches he makes burn together above his head.
Everything in this cameo is supebly carved and fully respect the original work of art of Thorvaldsen. The carving is three dimensional because, as can be seen from the pictures, it very high reliefed.
Hymen has his head crowned by roses and looks upwards to the two love torches, his face expression is smiling and happy because he's doing something of beautiful as joining two lovers for the whole life. His body is athletic and perfect, all the muscles can be perfectly seen. Look then at the little Cupid who embraces Hymen, he's perfect, his body is just like the one of a little child, round and plump. All the love of this world jumps out from this cameo that is a real work of art still in its original fitted case. Saulini's cameos are always artworks and they don't need of many words to be described, they speak by themselves just like this one.
Another splendid piece to collect, a rarest cameo for the joy of all the collectors.

A bit of history:

Hymen was the Greek god of marriage, son of Apollo and a Muse who for some is Calliope, for others is Clio or Urania, but according to different myths he was the son of Magnete, a young man in the service of Medea that the sorceress transformed into a magnet, and of the muse Calliope, or of Dionysus and Aphrodite.
He was also the brother of Ialemo, the God of mournful song, and of Orpheus. In Greek mythology he is known under the name of Hymenaios.
He was loved by Apollo, by Hesperus, by Tamiri, he was friend and companion of Eros, god of love.
In Athens a legend was told according to which Hymenaeus, a beautiful young Athenian, loved, although he was of modest condition, a noble young Athenian and, not hoping to ever marry her, he followed her everywhere, from afar.  It was the only satisfaction he could afford. One day, the noble girls went to Eleusis to make sacrifices to Demeter, but they were kidnapped by the pirates, and with them Hymenaeus, whom they had mistaken for a woman.
The pirates, after a long crossing, landed on a deserted beach and, tired, fell asleep.
During the night, while everyone was asleep, Hymenaeus killed all the pirates and put the girls in safety, then returned to Athens to return them to their families as long as he was allowed to marry the girl he loved.
The proposal was accepted, the young women were returned and Hymenaeus married his great love. The marriage was so happy that the young man began to be invoked by the Athens spouses.
Another legend told instead that Hymenaeus, during the wedding of Ariadne and Dionysus, suddenly lost his voice while he sang.
In another marriage, the wedding of Dionysus and Altea, Hymenaeus died suddenly during the ceremony (but weren't the gods immortal?), While he gladdened the wedding feast with his song.
Since then he has been invoked on the occasion of all marriages. The missing voice or death evoked the death and resurrection of the vegetation-child of Mother Earth, in fact Hymenaeus was then resurrected by Aesculapius. Hymenaeus was represented as a beautiful teenager, holding a wedding torch in his hand. In Argos he was an object of worship.
Hymenaeus is invoked as a sign of good luck in weddings and his usual attributes are a torch, a wreath and sometimes a flute. In the Greek tradition, Hymenaeus walked at the head of every wedding procession, and protected the marriage rite; the Athenians, in some solemn feasts, invoked him with a song of joy: - "Hymen, Hymen! O Hymen, Hymen!"

ROMAN HYMEN

In Roman mythology, the God Hymen (or Hymenaeus, son of Bacchus (Dionysus) and Venus (Aphrodite), presided over marriage. Some poets considered him now the son of a muse (Clio or Urania) and of Apollo, now of Dionysius and God played an important role in human life, presiding over weddings usually crowned with roses, cloaked in a veil and carrying a torch.
Both in Greek mythology and in Roman mythology it also took the name of a verse song, the hymenaeus, as an invocation for the God to assist the marriage and protect the spouses. The poet Sappho be left a splendid example in the hymen for Hector and Andromache.
Both the spouses and the guests at the wedding addressed fervent invocations to this God, especially in the wedding song, called the hymen, which was sung when the bride was led out of the paternal house. His name meant flower of maidens' virginity.
Hymenaeus was represented in the form of a young blond man with his head crowned with flowers, especially marjoram, who held a torch in his right hand, at other times a flute and, in his left, a yellow veil, a color particularly suitable for wedding ceremonies.
Sometimes this God, crowned with roses, wore a white dress embroidered with flowers; some mythologists attributed to him a gold ring, a yoke with obstacles at his feet, an allegory made even more transparent by two torches that have only the same flame.