What the renaissance pearl jewelry adored by British Queen Elizabeth I looked like

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Pearls have always been considered unique. When it began to be brought to Europe from the New World in the 15th century, pearls immediately became very popular. After all, this substance differed from “ordinary” diamonds, emeralds and rubies in that it was “alive”. A real "Pearl Rush" broke out, which almost drove rich people to madness. Pearls have become something of a measure of a person's status. Considering that pearls were in great demand among rich and influential people, jewelers began to make not just ordinary pearl necklaces, but to create real works of art.

There was no limit to the imagination of jewelers when creating pendants. Women ice skating. Salamanders devouring emeralds. Cherubim with pearl backs. Gods, monkeys, castles and literally everything you can imagine. Much of this diversity was due to the growth of humanism during the Renaissance. It became popular among the nobility to become something of a hippie with a college education, as well as to study ancient Greek philosophy, poetry, etc. Combined with the splendor of the Renaissance, this led to the emergence of surprisingly complex and often grotesque pendants throughout Europe. The most famous of the many such jewelry is the Canning Jewel (1560), a pendant donated to one of the Indian Mughal emperors by the Medici family.

Canning Jewel

The Canning Jewel is a stunning Baroque pearl pendant made of solid gold and set with diamonds, rubies and pearls. The torso of the god of the seas Triton in the center of the jewelry is made of a large silvered pearl. It was an age of exploration and enlightenment. Sometimes pearls were simply adorned with jewelry. In other cases, the bodies of fantastic creatures were carved out of it. It was all worth it, to put it mildly, not cheap. For example, today the "Canning Jewel" is valued at more than half a million dollars, and other pearl pendants from that time are also worth a fortune.

The general excitement was also caused by the fact that pearls were a relative novelty. In the Middle Ages (and, up to the 19th century), it was believed that he had healing properties for the spirit and body, and was especially good for diseases caused by melancholy. They took this medicine by dissolving a pearl in vinegar and then adding a little milk and honey to the mixture.

Queen Elizabeth I simply adored pearls, which in almost all paintings she was depicted in a pearl necklace. Even when she died, the queen was buried in her favorite shoes with pearl medallions. Italy, home to leading gold and pearl jewelers, traded with all of Europe in the 1400s, and the wealthy lined up for precious new items. After pearls began to be imported from America, they became so popular that the elite began to pass laws on who could wear pearl jewelry in the upper echelons of society. For so many people, "white balls" have become something of a currency that can be exchanged for anything. Sounds like Renaissance bitcoins, doesn't it?

A 16th-century Spanish explorer, Balboa, discovered in the Gulf of Panama a stunning 200-gram pear-shaped pearl, which the Queen of Spain named after her beloved falcon, La Peregrina. It has been kept for centuries among the treasures of the royal crown. Then, in 1969, Richard Burton bought the pearl for about $ 250,000 (at current prices) for Elizabeth Taylor.

It was only at the dawn of the 20th century that pearls became less valuable due to the fact that they began to grow them on special farms. However, during the Victorian era, grotesque jewels, similar to those created during the Renaissance, often appeared. It seems that grotesque glamor is not completely dead.