Cameo brooch with Medusa

Oval brooch made of a cameo set in a 14k rose gold frame. The cameo is very well crafted, hand carved from a shell depicting a sleeping Medusa. She is depicted facing her fate, with a calm but slightly grieved expression on her face. Further, with two intertwined snakes around her neck and above her forehead, hinting at the manner of Medusa's death. The entwined serpents are a symbol of fertility and wisdom. Medusa has wings, like the other Gorgons (mythical creatures). This is a beautiful art and craft work from the first quarter of the 20th century from Russia.

Our cameo depicts Medusa asleep, at the moment when, according to Greek mythology, Perseus beheaded her. Whoever looked into Medusa's eyes turned to stone. Perseus used this power, which remained in her eyes even after her death, as a weapon several times. He used it to save his future wife, Andromeda, from a sea monster and to seize the throne on the island of Seriphos, where he grew up. He then gave the severed head to the goddess Athena as a gift for the help she had given him earlier. This ends the story of Medusa, her head being mounted on Athena's shield to deter enemies.

A cameo is a miniature portrait cut and engraved as a relief on a flat ground (the opposite is an intaglio cut into the surface). Semi-precious stones, glass or shells were often used for cameos. The most commonly depicted motifs are from mythology and portraits of rulers. The greatest boom of cameos was in the period of antiquity, the Renaissance, in the 18th and 19th centuries, when they became a collector's item.