Cameo is a method of
carving an object such as an
engraved gem, item of
jewellery or vessel made in this manner. It nearly always features a raised (positive)
relief image; contrast with
intaglio, which has a negative image. Originally, and still in discussing historical work, cameo only referred to works where the relief image was of a contrasting colour to the background; this was achieved by carefully carving a piece of material with a flat plane where two contrasting colours met, removing all the first colour except for the image to leave a contrasting background.