Jewels in Spain 1500 – 1800
THE HISPANIC SOCIETY OF AMERICA
Jewels in Spain 1500 – 1800
PRISCILLA E. MULLER
CENTER FOR SPAIN IN AMERICA CENTRO DE ESTUDIOS EUROPA HISPÁNICA
Distributed by Ediciones El Viso, Madrid www.edicioneselviso.com
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The Sixteenth Century: Renaissance and Mannerism
FIG. 55
Book-shaped pendant, XVI century, enameled gold with gems. Madrid, Museo Nacional de Artes Decorativas [CE19964]
It was not until his seventeenth year that
three years. Though this promise was
Charles I of Spain (1500–1558), son of
kept, Charles V throughout his life was
Juana la Loca and Philip the Handsome,
indefatigable in his travels, wars and
saw the Peninsula he was destined to rule.
involvements abroad. France, the Turks,
Born in Ghent and educated in Flanders,
Barbary pirates of north Africa, Protes-
his advisers and appointees to govern-
tants and the Papacy itself (in the Sack
mental positions were Flemings, brought
of Rome, 1527) were engaged as Charles
with him to Spain. Discontent and oppo-
strained through more than forty cam-
sition arose immediately and it was not
paigns to make Catholic Spain and his
without some difficulty that Charles estab-
dominions in Flanders, Germany and
lished himself as king. Confirmation of
Italy the ruling force of sixteenth-centu-
his election as Emperor of Germany (as
ry Europe. The Golden Age that Erasmus
Charles V) in June 1519, following the
saw forthcoming with Charles’s accep-
death of his grandfather Maximilian,
tance of the crown of Spain146 instead
brought further trepidation on the part
brought four decades of war.
of Spaniards. Charles, on leaving Barce-
International entanglements persist-
lona early in 1520 for his October coro-
ed to perplex Charles’s son and successor
nation in Aix-la-Chapelle, met Spanish
in Spain and Flanders, the somber Phi-
resistance to his expanded role with a
lip II (1527-1598). Wars with France, the
promise to return to rule Spain within
Papacy and the Italian States were chronic.
47
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cintura, its enameled links of open cartouche, leaf, fruit and flower design also studded with diamonds, had leaves cut “a lo Romano,” or in the Italian Renaissance manner.228 At the Medici court, however, a Milanese jeweler in 1588 made a necklace of crystal and enameled gold beads in the Spanish fashion (“à la spagniola”).229 Though Anne of Austria, successor to Isabel of Valois as Philip’s queen, continued to wear the type of garganta preferred by Isabel and her daughter, the ensemble was apparently no longer the primary consideration, for her girdle and its broncha of jeweled twisted gold knots were distinct from accompanying jewels (fig. 125). By 1605, expansion of the elaborate lace ruff worn at the neck all but eliminated the garganta and Margarita of Austria could no longer consistently suspend her principal joyel from her necklace as had her predecessors but found it necessary to fasten it directly to the jeweled, embroidered fabric of her dress (figs. 68, 70). Of existing necklaces related to those in Spain, links of one in Baltimore approximate those of a late sixteenth-century hoard excavated in Seville in 1934 (figs. 75 and 77.)230 The curving outlines are known also in less intrinsically valuable necklaces of about 1600 in enameled gold and pearls (fig. 76), or in the cloisonné enameled links of an early seventeenth-century necklace (fig. 78).
FIG. 75
Necklace, late XVI century, enameled gold with gems. Baltimore, Walters Art Museum [44.508] FIG. 76
Necklace, ca. 1600, enameled gold with pearls. New York, Hispanic Society of America [R3532]
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FIG. 77
Gold links with pearls, XVI century. Seville, Museo Arqueológico [REP 04857] FIG. 78
Necklace with Saint Ferdinand, sapphire seal, crucifix, XVI–XVII centuries, enameled gold with pendent pearls. New York, Hispanic Society of America
Though bracelets might appear to have been infrequent, period portraits instead presenting wrist-fitting ruffs terminating long sleeves, many were documented, their design repeating that of the pieces with which they were seen. Many in the Juana la Loca inventory were, like her necklaces, heirloom jewels in the style of the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century. As had been those of Isabella, most were listed in multiples of two (from two to ten) and would have decorated each wrist or forearm as in a later portrait of Queen Margarita (fig. 68). A solitary gold axorca of light, movable units enclosing the Mysteries of the Passion seems to have been exceptional.231 A preference for initial letters, enameled devices, or mottos and diamonds was evident among bracelets given to Isabella of Portugal by Charles V in 1526; the many distributed in 1551 after Isabella’s death included manillas and ajorcas with pearls, rubies, amber and coral, and thirteen manillas de memoria, possibly inscribed bracelets in the manner of in memoriam rings.232 In the 1522 Portuguese inventory of the infanta Beatriz were bracelet pairs made in India, distinctive for quantities of rubies, emeralds and diamonds; from the Orient may also have come the porcelana mounted in six manillas of enameled gold.233 For Isabel of Valois, Arnao Vergel provided fittings for eight coral THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY: RENAISSANCE AND MANNERISM
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95
96
97
FIG. 95
Pendant design, 1545, brown ink on paper, Llibres de Passanties, fol. 136. Barcelona, Arxiu Històric de la Ciutat de Barcelona FIG. 96
Ioan Dalmau, pendant design, 1550, brown ink on paper, Llibres de Passanties, fol. 154. Barcelona, Arxiu Històric de la Ciutat de Barcelona FIG. 97
Pendant design, 1551, brown ink on paper, Llibres de Passanties, fol. 162. Barcelona, Arxiu Històric de la Ciutat de Barcelona FIG. 98
Serafí Pux, pendant design, 1580, brown ink on paper, Llibres de Passanties, fol. 261. Barcelona, Arxiu Històric de la Ciutat de Barcelona FIG. 99
Pere Juan Pochi, ewer design, 1551, brown ink on paper, Llibres de Passanties, fol. 161. Barcelona, Arxiu Històric de la Ciutat de Barcelona 98
99
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FIG. 134
FIG. 136
Joan Quintana, pendant design, 1586, brown ink on paper, Llibres de Passanties, fol. 277. Barcelona, Arxiu Històric de la Ciutat de Barcelona
Siren pendant, XVI century, enameled gold with emeralds, diamonds and pendent pearl. London, The British Museum [WB.154]
FIG. 135
Jaume Pares, pendant design, 1591, brown ink over black chalk on paper, Llibres de Passanties, fol. 313. Barcelona, Arxiu Històric de la Ciutat de Barcelona
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162
163
164
FIG. 162
Narçis Amat, pendant design by 1605, black chalk and brown ink on paper, Llibres de Passanties, fol. 373. Barcelona, Arxiu Històric de la Ciutat de Barcelona FIG. 163
Lion pendant, late XVI century, pearl with enameled gold, diamond and ruby. Baltimore, Walters Art Museum [57.618] FIG. 164
Lion pendant, late XVI century, enameled gold with pendent pearls. Saragossa, Cabildo Metropolitano de Zaragoza
period and one drawn in Barcelona in 1605
Sobriety, temperance and patience
(figs. 162–64) offer a basically natural
were associated with the passant, or walk-
interpretation reminiscent of the lion illus-
ing camel of heraldry. These qualities
trated in 1585 by the silversmith Juan de
were emphasized in emblematic applica-
Arfe, whose concern was in bringing to
tions, as in two personal empresas illus-
his contemporaries natural animal and
trated in Giovio in 1561. The camel of
bird forms as opposed to the mannered
Virgilio Ursino’s empresa implored cau-
renditions of his colleagues.348
tion: “I am like the camel . . . that on
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of the prince and a coat of arras (escudo) of
mentary raised corners encroaching upon
Charles V.374 Outside Spain, Pompeo Leo-
the stone as seen in a ring excavated in
ni in Rome in 1585 hesitated between a
Seville (fig. 185) or to a setting similar to
large, high quality sapphire and a jacinth
that drawn in Barcelona in 1579 (fig. 184).
on which to engrave the Spanish king’s
Time-piece rings, a sixteenth-century
device.375 Among rings in the Philip II
innovation attractive to Mannerist design-
inventory were a number with cameos
ers, were sought for Spain, Lope de Soria
and semi-precious stones on which were
reporting to Charles V from Venice in 1538
worked figures from antiquity, mytho-
of a “sortija del relox.”380 Listed in the 1598
logical beings or emblematic devices.376
Philip II inventory was a watch-ring of
The international exchange of rings was
black-enameled gold with a figure which
constant. From Milan, Genoa and Ant-
lifted to reveal a sun-clock, its “letters,”
werp, Philip II at mid-century selected
or hours, indicated on silver.381 Bequeathed
diamond rings to be sent as gifts to indi-
by Philip to the Escorial monastery for
viduals in Germany, Italy or Spain.377
use during pontifical services was a large
In 1537, the dying Alessandro de’ Medi-
gold ring with faceted table-cut emerald
ci had upon his finger a diamond given
set amid strapwork and grotesques (car-
him by Charles V; Mary Tudor, as Philip
tones y figuras al brutescos) enameled
II’s queen, gifted him with diamond rings,
blue, white and red.382 Nor were prophy-
one a favorite given as a pledge of her
lactic purposes ignored, the white stone
love.378 Gold settings described in 1562
of one of Philip’s rings noted as useful
were enlivened by engraved cartouches
for stanching the flow of blood.383 The
in enamels or niello (cf. fig. 184), and were
demand for finger rings of gold on all so-
of a ryzadillo, or ruffle-like design enam-
cial levels produced the inevitable result.
eled à la moresque (cf. fig. 183); a hex-
Several Sevillian merchants during the
agonal ruby and a pointed diamond were
sixties and seventies offered rings of
noted as held by four garras, or claws,379
inferior quality gold as “de punzón,” or
suggesting a prong setting not common-
of legal gold content; these were repeat-
ly associated with sixteenth-century rings
edly confiscated and destroyed by guild
though perhaps referring to four rudi-
examiners.384
FIG. 183
Joan Agusti Vilar, ring design, 1609, brown ink on paper, Llibres de Passanties, fol. 383. Barcelona, Arxiu Històric de la Ciutat de Barcelona FIG. 184
Jaume Prats, ring design, 1579, brown ink on paper, Llibres de Passanties, fol. 258. Barcelona, Arxiu Històric de la Ciutat de Barcelona FIG. 185
Ring, XVI century, gold with emerald. Seville, Museo Arqueológico [REP 04856]
FIG. 186
Juan Pantoja de la Cruz (copy after Sofonisba Anguisciola), Isabel of Valois, ca. 1604–8, oil on canvas. Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado [P–1030]
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FIG. 187
Marten’s head, XVI century, enameled gold with gems. Baltimore, Walters Art Museum [57.1982]
The sixteenth century with its love
Valois carried a jeweled marten with chain
ian in origin,391 exhibits swags of grapes
of fine metals and stones worked with
(fig. 186) and from among her effects a
on its forehead recalling the described
preciosity could not forgo drawing upon
marten’s skin, its head holding forty-one
“frutas” and thus may illustrate the doc-
the jeweler’s talents for a miscellany of
diamonds and small ruby eyes, was giv-
umented marten’s head, perhaps one of
389
A
objects. Rodrigo Reynalte produced a gold
en to the infanta Catalina in 1585.
fan for the Alba family in 1562,385 jeweled
jeweled dull (mate) gold marten’s head
and enameled gold toothpicks hardly
with four matching claws contained in a
The sixteenth century thus saw
ordinary in appearance were considered
brass-latched, partly gilded small box lined
unparalleled wealth, fantasy and crafts-
and furred
with white and crimson satin was more
manship in the fabrication of jewels.
animals, alive and domesticated or deceased
fully described when listed following
Unfortunately so much known to have
and become apparel, bore ornaments of
Philip II’s death.390 “Frutas” ornamented
been created no longer remains and only
considerable intrinsic worth. Marten skins
the head, its white, vermilion and other
from documentation, written and visual,
were fitted with jeweled gold trappings
colored enamels studded with fifteen table
and from a relatively few surviving piec-
which replaced with sparkle and fantasy
emeralds of assorted sizes and cuts, six
es, can the breadth of creativity of gold-
the furry creature’s head and paws. Phil-
rubies, twenty-eight smaller diamonds
smiths in Spain during a century of vital
ip II while prince in Brussels in 1550 had
and twelve pearl units. Mounted in its
activity and development be realized.
five martens with gold heads and paws,
neck were six additional emeralds and
387
precious stones embellishing the heads,
in each claw was an emerald, a ruby and
and there was inventoried in Spain in 1559
a diamond. The mouth held a ring with
a marten’s head of black-enameled ham-
small gold fastening link (assilla). One
mered gold with three diamonds, three
surviving jeweled marten’s head (fig. 187),
386
as and listed among jewels,
388
rubies and six large pearls.
Isabel of
the five in Philip’s possession in Brussels a half-century earlier.
thought probably Venetian or North Ital-
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