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Legacy
Fragments of The Past
A new exhibition explores the concept of Revival jewelry, focusing on themes that have found expression in designs for thousands of years.
By Phyllis Schiller
Revival jewelry, notes Emily Stoehrer, Rita J. Kaplan and Susan B. Kaplan Curator of Jewelry, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), covers a broad swath of designs that have resonated throughout the ages. In a new exhibition, “Past is Present: Revival Jewelry” beginning February 14 at the MFA, Stoehrer takes a closer look at how the past has provided inspiration for some of the most beautiful jewelry for centuries. The point of the exhibition, Stoehrer says, is to “show revivalism as a movement of jewelry looking backwards across time. It’s not just going to begin in 1800 or end in 1900, but continues into the twentieth and even twenty-first centuries.” The exhibition focuses on four revival styles — Renaissance, Archeological, Classical and Egyptian — covering a span of 4,000 years. The 81 objects include mostly jewelry, with the addition of three paintings and one dress. To illustrate how designs from the past were “revived,” both original and revival pieces are displayed in tandem. The oldest object is a gold bracelet with lion terminals from Near Eastern cultures that dates from about 2400 B.C. It’s paired with an Indian bracelet in the MFA’s collection from the nineteenth century, alongside a 1929 bracelet on loan from Cartier. “The twentieth-century version clearly shows that Cartier was looking at both those styles of bracelets to inspire the Chimera Bracelet they made in the 1920s,” says Stoehrer.
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The exhibition is 80 percent from the MFA’s collection and 20 percent on loan, including four pieces from Cartier. Everything from the nineteenth century forward is a signed work, Stoehrer notes. Among the MFA offerings are some new acquisitions on view for the first time. Case in point: A newly acquired 1980s Bulgari necklace with three ancient coins from Macedonia. “It will be shown alongside of another new acquisition, a nineteenth-century brooch by Ernesto Pierret, who was a contemporary of Castellani, and some other Castellani examples that have been in the collection for quite some time,” Stoehrer says. “One of the other things we’re featuring is an incredible bracelet, also by Pierret, that has a bull’s head in its center, which the museum just acquired. This tour de force object relates directly to an ancient pendant we have in the collection.”
Revival designs from different areas of the world were influenced by different cultural and political feelings and therefore stressed different themes. For example, Stoehrer explains, “The jewelry made in Italy is predominately archeological revival. And that’s related to Italy working toward unification at that moment, which also had nationalist overtones to it. Castellani and his sons were very political, so they saw this as being very nationalistic, showing their roots to Etruscan culture. In England and France, you see more Renaissance revival jewelry — colorful enamel — and that’s also rooted in looking at their own glorious past. We have a wonderful cameo necklace, circa 1890, by Mrs. Philip (Charlotte) Newman showing Elizabeth I. During Victoria’s reign, she was often compared to Queen Elizabeth. We have American examples of classical revival, such as a 1890 cameo bracelet. There’s also a cameo by a contemporary Japanese artist named Shinji Nakaba.” Among the stellar Cartier pieces on view, Stoehrer points out an Eye of Horus Bracelet that belonged to Linda Porter, Cole Porter’s wife, shown in a case with other jewelry that feature eyes as a design element. A 1906 Cartier Medusa pendant is paired with a Medusa cameo bracelet from the third century. A piece Stoehrer says she’s most excited about is a 1924 Cartier London scarab belt buckle brooch, with a smoky quartz scarab in the middle and outstretched wings with onyx, diamond and ancient faience. “Cartier used fragments excavated from a tomb. The original piece would have looked similar to the ancient winged scarab I’m pairing it with. That piece is from our collection and dates to between 740 B.C. and 660 B.C. It’s exciting to see them together. There are some things that wouldn’t be so obvious until you compare them. These ancient winged scarabs were attached to mummy wrappings, so there are holes on the faience in the wings and the scarab to allow it be sewn on. In the Cartier version, they’ve filled where the holes were with emeralds. “Looking at these two examples together really drives the point home of what revival jewelry is — an interest in the past and sometimes using fragments of the past. And yet the Cartier brooch is so much of the 1920s.” This is the takeaway Stoehrer would like visitors to have. “We want people to come away with the knowledge that through the centuries, jewelers have always had this interest in looking to the past for inspiration. It’s an ongoing tradition that is still alive and well today.”Article from the Rapaport Magazine - February 2017. To subscribe click here.
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