Collecting jewelry from the classical world, be it Greek, Etruscan, or Roman, started as early as the eighteenth century, which saw discoveries of splendid Greek jewelry and of Scythian and Sarmatian goldwork in Russia, the excavation of Etruscan tombs, and the unearthing of Roman jewelry in Pompeii and Herculaneum. All of these developments inspired monarchs such as Peter the Great of Russia, aristocratic families including the Borgia and Farnese, and diplomats like Sir William Hamilton, the British ambassador to Naples, to make ancient goldwork part of their art collections. Public institutions such as the British Museum, London, and the Museé du Louvre, Paris, soon followed. The Antiquarium in Berlin purchased ancient jewelry for the first time in 1839, and in the mid-nineteenth century, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, acquired the collection of L. di Cesnola. While collecting continued, and was certainly inspired by the discovery of the treasures of Troy and Mycenae, it was no longer the preserve of the aristocracy. Major collections—some now intact in museums, material from others occasionally turning up on the art market—were formed by dedicated individuals including L. di Cesnola and B. Y. Berry in the United States ; Sir A. Franks and R. Harari in England ; M. de Clercq and E. Guilhou in France ; F. L. von Gans, B. Schiller, and M. Rosenberg in Germany ; Antony Benaki and H. Stathatos in Greece ; and A. Moretti in Switzerland.
The twentieth century saw a number of important exhibitions of ancient jewelry, and the first major one was staged in Berlin as early as 1932. This was followed in 1965 by Jewelry from the Age of Alexander, shown in Boston, Brooklyn, and Richmond ; Il’oro di Taranto, the splendid finds from the Greek cities in southern Italy, shown in Milan and various other European venues in 1984 ; and in 1993 by a display of Roman jewelry in Cologne. Between 1991 and 1992, the Dallas Museum of Art, the Cooper Hewitt Museum, the San Diego Museum of Art, and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco presented The Gold of Greece, an exhibition of jewelry and ornaments from the Benaki Museum, Athens. Another particular highlight was the exhibition Greek Gold : Jewelry of the Classical World, which was on view during 1994 and 1995 at the British Museum and the Metropolitan Museum, bringing together the finest Greek jewelry of the fifth and fourth centuries B. C. from these two institutions and from the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. Also to be mentioned is the 1996 exhibition of ancient gold jewelry at the Dallas Museum of Art, which included the largest amount of fine Etruscan goldwork in the United States.
Scholarly research followed, and catalogues started to be published in the late nineteenth century. Most of these early publications are still worth reading ; F. H. Marshall’s catalogue of the ancient jewelry in the British Museum is still as valid today as it was in 1911, when it was first published.
In antiquity, gold jewelry was made and worn in order to display wealth and taste, thereby conveying the rank and status of the wearer. For the modern viewer, the delicate, intricate nature of Greek, Hellenistic, Etruscan, and Roman goldwork conveys an immediate impression of beauty and skill, of luxury and amazing workmanship.
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION