Adornment and Artisanal Artistry: Renaissance Necklace Jewelry

Class Year

2025

Document Type

Digital Project

Date of Creation

Spring 2023

Department 1

Art

Abstract

Jewelry in the Renaissance became a highly regarded art form, with intricate detailing and meticulous particularity. Jewelry has been an integral part of various cultures throughout history, depicting religious imagery, illustrating social status, and more. Made of a variety of materials specific to different regions, jewelry is a model of the heavy trade and exchange of ideas that occurred throughout the Global Renaissance. Ivory and gemstones traveling from various sources around the world make up beautiful pendants worn only by those who could afford such luxuries (Evans). Alongside this, production of these pieces was a massive and experimental industry of developing styles and symbolic themes. The Renaissance age boomed with varied production through different methods of trade, casting, and transportation to create unique and intricate pieces of jewelry and art ("Renaissance Jewelry"). Renaissance styling consisted of brooch-like use in pendants, typically paired with a gold chain to hang from, then decoratively pinned to the clothing. Other cultures, like the Aztecs and the Islamic world, took a particularly symbolic route, gravitating more towards beads and details than large pendants.

Comments

Created for ARTH 245: Arts of the Global Renaissance.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

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