William Ponsonby, Viscount Duncannon, Future Second Earl of Bessborough

Johann Lorenz Natter

1750 · Onyx, mounted in gold as a pendant · European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

His lapidary excellence lead the German medalist Johann Lorenz Natter to Switzerland, Venice, Florence, England, Denmark, Sweden, Holland, and Russia, where he died. William Ponsonby (1704–1793), an influential parliamentary politician, was an original member of the band of aesthetes known as the Dilettanti Society. Natter presented him sparely, with cropped hair, in the neo-Roman style of budding Neoclassicism. The ground stratum is carved so thin as to be transparent, allowing a delicate play of light. A companion cameo dated 1750 of Ponsonby’s wife, Lady Caroline, née Cavendish, was auctioned at Christie’s in London in 1923 but has left no subsequent trace.

Artist

Johann Lorenz Natter

Date

1750

Medium

Onyx, mounted in gold as a pendant

Culture

British, probably London

Department

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Credit line

The Milton Weil Collection, 1939