
The city of Torre del Greco, a pearl of the Gulf of Naples was, according to some, the ancient city of Herculaneum buried and consecrated to immortality by the eruption of Mt.Vesuvius on August 24, in 79 A.C., on which fertile banks perished the siren "Parthenope" of Homeric memory. Torre del Greco, an indeclinable jewel in the everlasting treasure chest of the Mediterranean. A beacon of civilization and the cradle of the arts: from the figurative to the architectural artefacts; from pictorial to jewelry craft; from shipbuilding to craftsmanship. An undying name of a "World and International Capital" which symbol is no longer just the "red gold" - coral and its compositions - but also the witness of an ancient culture, an unusual but authentic jewel of the sea: the cameo. And indeed, the engraving of cameos distinguishes itself through the trappings of an ancient knowledge that condenses in miniature sculptures the flavor and fragrance of a sea in eternal dialogue with the history of the nations, men and gods; nations and ethnic groups; civilizations and rituals that remain motionless as a millennial snapshot within the naturalistic and epic profiles, as well as in the allegorical and mythological glimpses depicted on the cameo. An ancient history that has its roots in that happy oasis of ancient knowledge: Egypt. A prime example of the art of cameos is, in fact, the Egyptian scarab engraved on stone and used as a talisman against the infernal deities; an unstoppable race over the centuries and millennia, following tastes and beliefs of a classic epos which has never overshadowed and faded.