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Accompanying an exhibition which moved from the Louvre to The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, in February 1998, this is a study of the work of the French Neo-classical sculptor, Augustin Pajou (1730-1809). His sculpture is discussed and illustrated in depth, and a detailed picture is provided of the artistic, courtly and aristocratic milieu in which he was active. This examination of the 18th-century French intellectual world concentrates on the beginnings of Neo-classicism and explores the philosophical and scientific underpinnings of the Enlightenment. The book is therefore intended not only for art historians, but also those interested in social and cultural history....
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The engraving of hardstones is a time-honored practice that goes back several millennia. The Greeks refined the art, and they introduced in about the fifth century b.c. what we now call cameos: precious and semiprecious stones carved in projected relief. As fanciful curiosities and as miraculous unions of art and nature, cameos have been prized and collected since ancient times. This book presents a selection of more than one hundred magnificently carved gems from the unparalleled collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The text traces the origins of cameos in classical antiquity, their rare occurrences in the Middle Ages, their efflorescence from the 16th to the 19th century, and their spread to the New World. ...
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