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| Earrings - Dolphins Eastern Mediterranean 2nd century BC gold, beryls, garnets Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
Above my cradle loomed the bookcase where
Latin ashes and the dust of Greece
mingled with novels, history, and verse
in one dark Babel. I was folio-high
when I first head the voices. 'All the world,'
said one, insidious but sure, 'is cake –
let me make you an appetite to match,
and then your happiness need have no end.'
And the other: 'Come, O come with me in dreams
beyond the possible, beyond the known!'
that second voice sang like the wind in the reeds,
a wandering phantom out of nowhere, sweet
to hear yet somehow horrifying too.
'Now and forever!' I answered, whereupon
my wound was with me – ever since, my Fate:
behind the scenes, the frivolous decors
of all existence, deep in the abyss,
I see distinctly other, brighter worlds;
yet victimized by what I know I see,
I sense the serpent coiling at my heels . . .
– from The Voice, originally published among 'additional poems' in Baudelaire's Flowers of Evil (1857), with English translation by Richard Howard (1982)
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| Pendant - Ball of Serpents France - René Lalique 1898-99 enameled-gold, pearls Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Ornamental Hairpin China 18th century gold, silver, enamel, precious stones, pearls Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Pendant - Mars France ca. 1550 enameled-gold, silver, lapis lazuli, opals, rubies, pearls Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Necklace with pendant Eastern Mediterranean 1st century BC gold, amethysts, emeralds, topazes, almandines, pearls Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Pendant - Swan Netherlands ca. 1590 enameled-gold, diamonds, emeralds, rubies, pearls Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Brooch - Butterfly Russia ca. 1850-1900 enameled-gold, silver, diamonds, sapphires Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
"In post-Renaissance alchemy substances were often thought to be made of sulfur, mercury, and salt, or of the three principles together with the metals copper, iron, tin, lead, and gold. The Renaissance alchemist called Basil Valentine classifies gemstones this way: diamond, he says, is made of 'fixed coagulated mercury', while rock crystal is only made of ordinary mercury (Mercurio vulgi). Ruby is composed of the 'tincture of Mars' (Tinctura Martis) or 'sulfur of iron', emerald is the sulfur of Venus, granite the 'soul of Saturn' (Anima Saturni), and sapphire is composed of sulfur and the 'tincture of the moon' (Tinctur Lunae)."
– from What Painting Is : How to Think about Oil Painting, Using the Language of Alchemy by James Elkins (Routledge, 1999)
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| Pendant - Amphitrite on a dolphin Western Europe - Renaissance-revival ca. 1870-1890 enameled-gold, diamonds, rubies, pearls Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Pendant - Hippocamp Spain ca. 1600 enameled-gold, pearl Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Brooch - Stag Beetle Russia ca. 1908-1917 gold, diamonds, rubies, garnet, pearl Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Figurines of Ostrich and Keeper Germany - Johann Melchior Dinglinger ca. 1700-1725 silver, pearls, cameos, precious stones Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| The Chesme Snuffbox Russia - Jean-Pierre Ador 1771 enameled-gold, silver, diamonds, rubies Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Earring Roman Empire 1st century AD gold, pearls Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Cameo - Medusa Roman Empire 2nd-3rd century AD sardonyx, gold Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |