This wax miniature is one of a pair of portraits by Alessandro Cades, a renowned gem engraver who worked in Rome. Engraved gems and cameos were a popular art form in ancient Greece and Rome, and Neoclassical artists like Cades sought to revive the study and practice of this art. Here, he depicted an unknown gentleman wearing a fashionable high-collared jacket, a type of garment based on English riding costume which was gaining popularity throughout Europe in the early 1800s.