coffee table book history

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INDEX 1. Islamic 2. Greek 3. Egytian 4. Aegean 5. Roman 6. IVC (Indus Valley Civilization) 7. Sumerian

After the Arab conquest of Iran brought it into the Islamic community of peoples, rings, pendants, earrings, and necklaces of gold continued to be worn, and the Iranian tradition of animal art persisted, modified to some extent in order to conform to the canons of Islam, which forbade the making of images. A 12th-century gold pendant in the form of a lion is a highly schematic rendering of this animal; it is decorated with granulation. Other techniques were filigree, encrustation with precious and semi- precious stones, and the use of niello. From the 14th century onward, manuscript illustrations give some idea of the kind of jewelry worn by Persians. In Mongol and Timurid times, jeweled coiffures for women and diademed headdresses for men seem to have been fashionable in court circles. Under the Safavid rulers, jewelry became more sumptuous and elaborate. In the 19th century, native traditions were altered by European influence, often with an eye toward European consumption. Traditional designs, however, have persisted in Zinjanab and among the Kurdish mountaineers of northwest Iran. Silver decorated with twisted wire arranged in scrolls is a feature of the former. The Kurdish goldsmiths also work in silver, which they decorate with chased or repoussé designs, sometimes reminiscent of motifs found on Sasanian metalwork. Jewelry worn by men and women in Turkey during the Ottoman period was probably influenced by the fashions current in Iran. Objects of adornment were jeweled turban aigrettes, rings, earrings, necklaces, and armlets. A technique popular in Turkey from the 16th century onward was the encrusting of jade and other hard stones with jewels attached to the surface by delicate floral scrolls in gold. Unfortunately, not many surviving pieces are earlier than the 19th century, when native tradition had been supplanted by a taste for Rococo jewelry. .A Mughal Emerald Islamic Calligraphy Ring in Gold with Enamel work

Gold Large Medallion Necklace I S L A M I C

The sensational discovery of the tomb of the pharaoh Tutankhamun (18th dynasty; 1539–1292 BCE) revealed the fabulous treasures that accompanied an Egyptian sovereign, both during his lifetime and after his death, as well as the high degree of mastery attained by Egyptian goldsmiths. This treasure is now housed in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and represents the biggest collection of gold and jewelry in the world. The pharaoh’s innermost coffin was made entirely of gold, and the mummy was covered with a huge quantity of jewels. More jewels were found in cases and boxes in the other rooms of the tomb. The diadems, necklaces, pectorals, amulets, pendants, bracelets, earrings, and rings are of superb quality and of a high degree of refinement that has rarely been surpassed or even equaled in the history of jewelry. The ornaments in Tutankhamun’s tomb are typical of all Egyptian jewelry. The perpetuation of iconographic and chromatic principles gave the jewelry of ancient Egypt—which long remained unchanged in spite of contact with other civilizations—a magnificent, solid homogeneity, infused and enriched by magical religious beliefs. Ornamentation is composed largely of symbols that have a precise name and meaning, with a form of expression that is closely linked to the symbology of hiero- glyphic writing. The scarab, lotus flower, Isis knot, Horus eye, falcon, serpent, vulture, and sphinx are all motif symbols tied up with such religious cults as the cult of the pharaohs and the gods and the cult of the dead. In Egyptian jewelry the use of gold is predominant, and it is generally complemented by the use of the three colours of carnelian, turquoise, and lapis lazuli or of vitreous pastes imitating them. Although there was a set, fairly limited repertoire of decorative motifs in all Egyptian jewelry, the artist-craftsmen created a wide variety of compositions, based mainly on strict symmetry or, in the jewelry made of beads, on the rhythmic repetition of shapes and colours. A collection of ancient Egyptian jewelry in the British Museum, London.

Tutankhamun: gold funerary mask E G Y P T I A N

Because gold was not readily available, jewelry was relatively rare in Archaic (c. 750–c. 500 BCE) and Classical (c. 500–c. 323 BCE) Greece. Examples do exist, however, and certain generalizations can be made. In the 7th and 6th centuries BCE the jewelry produced in Attica and the Peloponnese shows evidence of strong stylistic influence from southwest Asia, the same influence that contemporary Etruscans skillfully applied to their jewelry. In the 5th century BCE the Ionic style be- came predominant, taking the place of the Orientalizing period style. War scenes and animals of southwest Asian origin disappeared, for example, from the wide oval ring bezels and were replaced exclusively by the human figure. These included naked riders on galloping horses; seated and standing maidens, depicted both with clothes and naked; and deities and myth- ological figures. This extremely refined repertoire in reality was more closely related to sculpture and to classic ideals of beauty than to decoration. Indeed, in its long history, Greek jewelry has the predominant character of sculpture in miniature and represents isolated figures or religious, mythological, or heroic scenes. Greek expansion into Anatolia to the east, southern Italy to the west, and the Balkan Peninsula to the north resulted in the Hellenization of this entire area. Under the reign of Alexander the Great, a magnificent era for jewelry began. Hellenistic jewelry, much more so than painting and sculpture, underwent flourishing development in the art centres of the different re- gions under Greek rule. In the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE, the technical ability of Hellenistic goldsmiths reached the highest levels ever attained. A style both sumptuous and full of plastic vigour was created, in which meticulous arrangement of the decorative motifs resulted in the contrast and harmony, clarity and unity, rhythms and cadences that make some of these jew- els complete works of art. The very fine technique and virtuosity in miniature is reflected in the creation of the first cameos and in disk earrings bearing pendants, often of minute proportions. A real masterpiece is an earring with a winged figure of a woman driving a two-horse chariot (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston). The precision of its tiny details, the severity of style with which it is modeled, and the rhythmic dynamism of the figures make this earring a microscopic monument of sculpture. Golden funerary crown of Philip II of Macedon

Greek snake bracelet ; in the Schmuckmuseum Pforzheim. G R E E K

The Bronze Age civilization that flourished on the Mediterranean island of Crete is known as the Minoan. Because Crete lay near the coasts of Asia, Africa, and the Greek continent and because it was the seat of prosperous ancient civilizations and a necessary point of passage along important sea trading routes, the Minoan civilization developed a level of wealth which, be- ginning about 2000 BCE, stimulated intense gold-working activities of high aesthetic value. From Crete this art spread out to the Cyclades, Peloponnesus, Mycenae, and other Greek island and mainland centres. Stimulated by Minoan influence, Myce- naean art flourished from the 16th to the 14th century, gradually declining at the beginning of the 1st millennium BCE. Among the techniques used in Minoan-Mycenaean gold working were granulation and filigree, but the most widely used was the cutting and stamping of gold sheet into beads and other designs to form necklaces and diadems, as well as to decorate cloth- ing. The kings from Period I of Mycenaean civilization (c. 1580–1500 BCE), discovered in their burial places, wore masks of gold sheet, and scattered over their clothing were dozens of stamped gold disks. The disks reveal the rich variety of decorative motifs used by the Mycenaeans: round, rectangular, ribbon-shaped—including combinations of volutes, flowers, stylized pol- yps and butterflies, rosettes, birds, and sphinxes. A pendant from a Minoan tomb at Mallia, Crete (Archaeological Museum, Iráklion, Greece), is one of the most perfect master- pieces of jewelry that has come down to us from the 17th century BCE. The Sun’s disk is covered with granulation and is held up by two bees, forming the central part of the composition. Ring bezels (tops of the rings), with relief engravings of highly animated pastoral scenes, cults, hunting, and war, are also fine. Like those of the other jewelry forms, the ornamental motifs of the necklaces are varied, including dates, pomegranates, half-moons facing each other, lotus flowers, and a hand squeezing a woman’s breast. During the late Mycenaean period, earrings appeared in the shape of the head of a bull, an animal frequently represented in early gold plate. Mycenaean funerary mask

Minoan gold pendant of bees encircling the Sun A E G E A N

In ancient Rome, jewelry was used to an extent never seen before and not to be seen again until the Renaissance. Imperial Rome became a centre for goldsmiths’ workshops. Together with the precious stones and metals that were brought to the city came lapidaries and goldsmiths from Greece and the Asian provinces. The gold ring, which under the republic had been a sign of dis- tinction worn by ambassadors, noblemen, and senators, gradually began to appear on the fingers of persons of lower social rank until it became common even among soldiers. The great patrician families in Rome and the provinces possessed not only jewels but also magnificent gold and silver household furnishings, as shown by the objects found in Pompeii and nearby Boscoreale. From the standpoint of style, Roman jewelry in its earlier phases derived from both Hellenistic and Etruscan jewelry. Later it acquired distinctive features of its own, introducing new decorative themes and attaching greater importance to sheer volume (such as massive rings), in keeping with the rather pompous rhetorical spirit displayed at that point in cultural history. The motif of a serpent coiled in a double spiral, copied from Hellenistic models, was frequently used for bracelets, rings, arm bands, and earrings. The Romans also used Greek geometric and botanical motifs, palmettos, fleeting dogs, acanthus leaves, spirals, ovoli, and bead sequences. From Etruscan gold jewelry the Romans took the strong plasticity of the bulla, which they transferred to necklace pendants sparely decorated with filigree or combined in completely smooth hemispheres in bracelets, headdresses, and earrings. Ancient Roman gold and green glass ring, dated to the 4th to 5th centuries CE.

A typical Roman necklace made of gold and carnelian stone R O M A N

Jewelry in Indus Valley Civilization is amongst the most commonly found relics and artefacts of the Harappan society. The people of the Indus Valley Civilization were the first to explore the craft of jewelry making and their skill and workmanship is renowned around the world to this day. By 1,500 BC the population of the Indus Valley was creating molds for metal and terra- cotta ornaments. Gold jewelry from these civilizations also consisted of bracelets, necklaces, bangles, ear ornaments, rings, head ornaments, brooches, girdles etc. Here, the bead trade was in a full swing and they were made using simple techniques. Although women wore jewelry the most, some men in the Indus Valley wore beads. Small beads were often crafted to be placed in men and women’s hair. The beads were so small that they usually measured in at only 1 mm in diameter. Both men and women adorned themselves with ornaments. While necklaces, fillets, armlets and finger-rings were common to both genders; predominantly, females wore numerous clay or shell bracelets on their wrists. They were often shaped like dough- nuts and painted black. Over the time, clay bangles were discarded for more durable ones made out of precious metals. Women wore girdles, earrings and anklets. Ornaments were made of gold, silver, copper, ivory, precious and semi-precious stones, bones and shells etc. Other pieces that women frequently wore were thin bands of gold that would be worn on the forehead, earrings, primitive brooches, chokers and gold rings. Even the necklaces were soon adorned with gems and green stone. The Indus Valley era was widely known for the people’s skill in gem and precious stone setting, which is one of the reasons that their civilization is still studied and debated over. bangles in conch and faience ear-studs in steatite and faience

Necklace from Mohenjo-daro made from gold, agate, jasper, steatite and green stone I V C

The Sumerian jewelry makers were the first to use techniques like granulation and filigree, be it in simple and not very fine forms. A well-loved color combination visible from the pieces displayed at the British Museum in London is that of blue-yel- low-red; the combination of lapis lazulli, gold and carnelian. The materials were crafted to beads and then strung in alternating ways. A few pieces displaying gold objects with precious stone inlay have been found in the graves of prominent Sumerians as well. Chains, made with the basic loop in loop method and filigree show that the Sumerian goldsmiths had a firm grip on making, and using gold wire. A typical motive is that of the spiral. Metalworking techniques weren’t very complicated but nevertheless very effective. Jewelry worn by men often consisted of earrings, necklaces, armlets, bracelets, pectoral ornaments and headbands with a gold chain at the back which is presumed to have acted as a head-cloth fastener. Another typical form of male jewelry was that of the decorated cylinder seal. These seals were the first elaborately engraved pieces of precious stone and therefore the earliest glyptography. Sumerian women wore a much wider variety of jewelry such as golden headdresses made of sheet gold in the form of foliage and flowers, huge crescent-shaped earrings, chokers, large necklaces, belts, dress pins and finger-rings. Many items that resemble the jewelry from Ur in style and technique have been found through different areas in south-west Asia but local traditions can be discerned everywhere. Queen Shubad's headdress.pair of large lunate earrings.

Queen Puabi jewellery made of lapis lazuli and gold S U M E R I A N



REFERENCES https://alexbrosjewellers.com.au/special_greek_jewellery/ https://www.reddit.com/r/ArtefactPorn/comments/24ju9e/golden_funerary_crown_of_philip_ii_of_macedon/ https://www.britannica.com/art/jewelry/Egyptian https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_jewelry https://avgustaoktavia.tumblr.com/post/155296010067/gemma-antiqua-ancient-roman-gold-and-green https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zxn3r82/articles/zcsbr82 https://www.harappa.com/slide/necklace https://www.penn.museum/collections/object/304075 https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1989.87a-l/ https://in.pinterest.com/pin/384002305721937869/

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