Medusa Rondanini (Kameo)

This cameo is one of the masterpieces of the Roman gem cutter Giuseppe Cerbara, whom he himself marked with his name in widely spaced capitals. Cerbara chose the motif of the so-called 'Medusa Rondanini', an ancient type of Medusa head, for this gemstone. The eponymous and best-preserved high relief of this type was originally in the Palazzo Rondanini in Rome (now the Glyptothek in Munich) and was…