Renaissance Enameled Jewelry and 19th century Renaissance Revival: Characterization of Enamel Compositions
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Renaissance Enameled Jewelry and 19th century Renaissance Revival: Characterization of Enamel Compositions.
Mark T. Wypyski Sherman Fairchild Center for Objects Conservation The Metropolitan Museum of Art 1000 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10028, U.S.A.
ABSTRACT Enamels from European Renaissance enameled gold jewelry and other objects dating from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and Renaissance style and other objects from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were quantitatively analyzed using energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry. Differences were observed in the overall compositions, as well as the colorants and opacifiers used, of the Renaissance period and most of the later enamels. Some enamels from as late as the early nineteenth century, however, appeared to be essentially the same as those used during the Renaissance. The differences found in the enamel compositions can provide a set of objective compositional criteria to help distinguish between authentic Renaissance period enameled objects and some later enamels done in the style of the Renaissance. INTRODUCTION In the Renaissance, here rather loosely defined as the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, fine jewelry was not only seen as a highly visible indication of wealth, but was also appreciated as fine art, and in the hierarchy of artistic media of the period, could hold a position as high as or sometimes even higher than painting [1]. The making of Renaissance jewelry was largely the domain of the goldsmith’s guilds, and featured gold or sometimes silver forms inlaid with precious or semiprecious stones, sometimes carved in relief. The most commonly used decorative technique, however, was enameling. Enamels are made of glass, either produced specifically for the purpose or re-used from other objects, which is fused in place on a metal substrate. Studies of European late medieval enamel compositions have revealed that there was a change in the general compositions of the glass used for enameling beginning about the early fourteenth century, apparently in connection with the rise in the use of translucent enamels on gold and silver substrates [2]. By the time of the Renaissance, the earlier techniques of champlevé and cloisonné enameling had largely given way to a freer application of enamels painted directly on the surface of the metal (see Figure 1). By the seventeenth century, enameled decoration sometimes entirely covered the jewelry’s surface, seemingly becoming more important than the material it covered. The modern fashion for collecting jewelry for its artistic and historical interest seems to have begun about the second half of the eighteenth century, and apparently became widespread among the nobility and wealthy of Europe by the early nineteenth century [3]. The demand and the limited availability of authentic Renaissance jewels, however, encouraged their imitation. It is known that “Renaissance” works of art were being produced with the intent to deceive the II6.6.1
purchaser from as early as the beginning of the nineteenth century
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