Cameo
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Cameo is a method of carving, or an item of jewellery made in this manner. It features a raised (positive) relief image; contrast with
A cameo is usually made of two types of material, commonly precious or semi-precious stone. One material is carved into a figure — the most common type being a profile portrait of a person's head. This is then set upon the other type of material which provides a background of another colour to offset the figure.
Alternately, a cameo can be made from (banded) agate, where different layers of the same stone have different colours. Sometimes dyes are used to enhance the colours.
Cameos are often worn as jewellery. Cameos of great artistry were made in Greece dating back as far as the 6th century BC. They were very popular in Ancient Rome and have enjoyed periodic revivals, notably in the early Renaissance, and again in the 17th and 18th centuries. This visual art form has even inspired at least one writer of more recent times: the nineteenth-century Russian poet