Antonio Angelo Amastini

Private collection, England

Angelo Amastini was born in Fossombrone and worked in Rome in the late eighteenth century. A cameo with a classical head is in the Hermitage, St Petersburg, signed A.T. AMASTINI and first recorded in the collection in 1830. Forrer (op. cit.) records a portrait of Napoleon Bonaparte in the Cabinet des Médailles in Paris. Thomas Holman notes that 'Gems signed ... A.T AMASTINI have been firmly attributed to Angelo, with those signed N.AMASTINY or N.AMASTINI to his son Niccolò.'

The present cameo is particularly fine work.

RELATED LITERATURE

L. Forrer, Biographical Dictionary of Medallists, London, 1902-1930, vol. III, p. 608; I. Weber, Geschnittene Steine des 18. bis 20. Jahrhunderts, Staatliche Münzsammlung München, Munich, 1995, pp. 83-85 nos. 84 and 86; T. Holman,  A Collection of Engraved Gems, Multum in Parvo, exh. cat. Wartski, London, 2019, p. 197