Revival jewelry can also be classified by technique — including cameo carving, polychrome enamel, granulation and micromosaic. These methods, which have fascinated artists since antiquity, were heavily revived in the 19th century and continue to be employed by jewelers today.
Traditionally carved from shells or hard stones, cameos have been prized since their development in ancient Greece and Rome, when they were worn as symbols of wealth. A mass-produced cameo by Josiah Wedgwood seen in the Slave-in-Chains Medallion (1786–87) became a highly visible indicator of one's support for the abolitionist movement in the 18th century. Designed for the British Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade and worn as women's jewelry or set into men's accessories, the cameo shows a manacled slave on bended knee below the words "Am I Not a Man and a Brother?" Other examples of revivalist cameos include a Cameo Bracelet (about 1840) by William Morris Hunt, featuring portraits of the Boston painter and his three brothers, and the Peace Brooch (2011) by Japanese jeweler Shinji Nakaba, a recent acquisition made from helmet shell, gold and stainless steel that shows a crying or sleeping face and decorative carving inspired by ancient Greek art.
Jewelers working with enamel used a variety of techniques to achieve different results. The red-and-blue enamel background of Fuset y Grau's Girl Blowing Bubbles Pendant (about 1910) simulates a stained glass window using an elaborate plique-à-jour technique, which forgoes backing to allow light to shine through. Later jewelers were also seduced by the challenge of borrowing older techniques — in the 1950s, Margret Craver began to research and perfect émail en résille. The American jeweler's Pendant (about 1981) demonstrates the complicated technique, in which designs are etched into glass and colored foils and gold leafs are heated above, falling into the partially melted surface.
Sophisticated metalwork by ancient Etruscans included granulation — a delicate process in which tiny balls of pure gold are fused to a gold surface. During the second half of the 19th century, the technique was mastered by Alessandro Castellani, who produced highly praised examples that were sold at the family's shops in Rome, Paris and Naples — such as the Pair of Earrings (about 1870–80) composed of rosettes and amphora-shaped pendants. Another Pair of Earrings and an accompanying Brooch from the same time period show finely crafted cupids riding doves with silken cords. They were likely made by Castellani’s star pupil Giacinto Melillo, who managed the family's Naples workshop after 1870. More recent examples of the granulation technique include the Polyp Colony Necklace (1995) by John Paul Miller and the Chort Pendant (2002) by Andrea Cagnetti, known as Akelo. While Castellani revived the long-forgotten technique, he wrote very little about the process, leaving contemporary jewelers to experiment in recreating his methods.
Castellani also played a central role in igniting 19th-century taste for micromosaic jewelry, which incorporated miniature examples of mosaics that were abundant in ancient art. While much of the firm’s work focused on Etruscan styles, an Egyptian Revival Necklace and Brooch (before 1888) features 15 ancient scarabs and a palette of colors that were popular in Egyptian art — red represented the desert, green evoked the fertile lands of the Nile Valley, blue symbolized the sky and water, and yellow signified the sun. The necklace and brooch’s micromosaic elements were likely completed by the mosaicist Luigi Podio, who joined the Castellani workshop in 1851.
The symbolic nature of jewelry can be observed through the popularity of themes that were seen repeatedly in designs from the 19th to the 21st centuries, such as currency. Coins have been fashioned into jewelry since antiquity — acting as commemorative or artistic ornaments, they served as emblems of wealth and power. In the 19th century, jewelers like Ernesto Pierret and Castellani began incorporating ancient coins — both real and replicas — into their designs. At Castellani, while Alessandro excelled at mastering the granulation technique, his brother Augusto is credited for the firm’s coin jewelry — such as the Pendant with Coin of Corinth (about 1870–80). A collector and expert numismatist, he reportedly treated the coins with sulfur to create a uniform grey finish. A more recent gold Necklace with Coins of Heracles(1980s) by Bulgari features a coin design that dates to 350–300 BC, struck in the name of Alexander III. The obverse shows an image of Heracles, while Zeus, enthroned and holding an eagle and scepter, appears on the reverse. While such jewelry celebrates ancient life, the contemporary jeweler Kathy Buskiewicz questions materialism and value in her work. Her Savior Bracelet (1996) uses shredded currency obtained from the US Department of Treasury.
Animals have also long been viewed as symbols of power, incorporated into jewelry as a way for the wearer to appropriate the creatures’ qualities. One motif that spans centuries and continents features 'confronted animals' — two animals of the same species facing each other in a symmetrical pose. Confronted lions can be seen in the Anatolian Bracelet with Lion Head Finials (about 2400 BC), while a traditional Indian Bracelet with Confronting Makaras (19th century) and the Cartier Collection’s Chimera Bracelet (1929) feature mythical beasts. Beginning in the 1960s, American designer David Webb borrowed the style and created a menagerie of bracelets featuring confronted animals, including the Aztec Serpent Bracelet (1969), based on the double-headed design of an Aztec pectoral at the British Museum.
Snakes have been an especially popular animal motif in jewelry — considered at once wise and deceitful, prudent and cunning, their incorporation into ancient ornaments signified power and protection. Popular with the firm’s celebrity clients, a version of Bulgari’s gold, diamond and enamel Serpenti Bracelet-Watch (before 1978) slithered around Elizabeth Taylor’s wrist on the set of her 1962 film Cleopatra. More recently, contemporary jeweler David Bielander borrowed the ancient form for his nine-foot Python Necklace (2011). Taking a fresh approach by employing an unexpected — and startlingly lifelike — scale, Bielander's piece is among the selections in the exhibition that invite visitors to reconsider historical revivalism through a 21st-century lens.
Jewelry at the MFA
The jewelry collection at the MFA is one of the most comprehensive in the world, spanning 6,000 years and featuring adornments that represent a wide array of materials, techniques and functions. More than 20,000 objects range from Neolithic Chinese jade to ancient Egyptian beadwork to gems and jewels from 21st-century designers, as well as the most comprehensive collection of 20th-century studio jewelry ever assembled. The first curator of jewelry in an American art museum was appointed at the MFA in 2006, funded by the Rita J. and Stanley H. Kaplan Family Foundation and named in honor of Rita J. Kaplan and Susan B. Kaplan, a mother and daughter who are avid jewelry collectors and passionate supporters of the study of jewelry history. The MFA’s Rita J. and Stanley H. Kaplan Family Foundation Gallery — one of only a few galleries in the US solely dedicated to jewelry — offers a permanent space for the display of ornaments from all cultures and time periods.
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