Sunday, February 25, 2018

Renaissance Pendants from the Rijksmuseum

Pendant - Hands clasping Heart (Europe)
ca. 1580-1600
Diamonds, pearls, other jewels set in enameled gold
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Pendant - Dragon (Italy)
ca. 1550-1600
Pearls, other jewels set in enameled gold
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Pendant - Cock (Germany)
ca. 1600
Baroque pearl, rubies, other jewels set in enameled gold
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

The Pearl

That swimmers of the rock conspired to weave
down the green shaken depth a flight
of turning loins and shoulders, and yet leave
forever captured in a shell of night

the globe of shining in the sand, shall mean
as idols mean in sleep, the truth
we carry sealed and quiet down the green
descent into a memory of youth.

This is the grammar of a dream, to mark
how the brown swimmers came and are,
pass and recoil from where the forgotten dark
turns pale again upon a buried star.

– Richmond Lattimore (1950)

Pendant - Dolphin (Germany)
ca. 1600
Topazes, other jewels set in enameled gold
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Pendant - Flying Cupid (Germany)
ca. 1600
Pearls, rubies, other jewels set in enameled gold
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Pendant - Lute player mounted on deer (Germany)
ca. 1600
Pearls, other jewels set in enameled gold
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Pendant - Minerva (Italy)
ca. 1550-1600
Baroque pearls, other jewels set in enameled gold
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Pendant - Cupid in niche (Netherlands)
ca. 1550-60
Pearls, other jewels set in enameled-gold
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Pendant - Lamb (Europe)
ca. 1580
Pearl (half) set in enameled gold
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Pendant - Man and woman in horse-drawn sleigh (Europe)
ca. 1600
Diamonds, other jewels set in enameled gold
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

from Jewel Thief Movie

I had dozens of uses, but I was mostly
flat beautiful. Visitors just gasped
in the matte-black room where I freely
fluoresced. They saw me laid on a dictionary
to demonstrate my transparency,
which was complete; they could read the word
everything through me.
My name meant blood, meant seawater,
meant lemon. The eye in my agate
never blinked. I was believed to be formed
of frozen moonlight. I was cut so that a star
shone back. The purest and wind-clearest
hunk of me they carved into a horse.

–  Patricia Lockwood (2017)

Pendant - Dragon (Spain)
ca. 1550-1600
Baroque pearls, other jewels set in enameled gold
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Pendant - Cannon (Germany)
ca. 1580-1600
Pearls, rubies, diamonds set in enameled gold
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Pendant - Death with Scythe (Europe)
ca. 1600
enameled gold
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Pendant - Sphinx (Italy)
ca. 1600
Baroque pearls, other jewels set in enameled gold
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Poems from the archives of Poetry (Chicago)