Introduction: decoding jewels in Renaissance Scotland
Resource type
Book chapter
Creator (person)
Groundwater, Anna
Date published
May 2024
Abstract
The classic Roman god Mercury strides purposefully from left to right across a gold locket, but his specific intention is not immediately clear (fig.1). However, to the sixteenth-century maker, buyer and recipient of this locket, now known as the Fettercairn jewel, the significance of Mercury's journey will have been understood. In the visual messaging of this finely enamelled scene, the jewel exemplifies the communicative qualities of other such of the Renaissance period. Sentiments of love or mourning, celebration or sadness, were expressed through the shape and decoration of the jewels, while the personal attributes of giver or those whom the jewel adorned were symbolised by the fauna and flora, and human and religious figures depicted, and the special types of precious stones and lustrous metals used.To the twenty-first century viewer, unversed in the languages of emblems and stones, these messages may appear enigmatic. The book seeks to decode the meanings of stones in Renaissance-era Scotland through the rare survival of some of them, and their traces in the portraiture and archival material of the time.
Contributor (person)
Groundwater, Anna
Book title
Decoding the jewels: Renaissance jewellery in Scotland
Editor
Groundwater, Anna
Pagination
19-46
Publisher
Sidestone
Place of publication
Leiden, Netherlands
Official URL
Related URL
Rights statement
In Copyright