Mastery of Design: The Mermaid Pendant, 1860-1880

The Victoria & Albert Museum

In the late Nineteenth Century, designs from the Renaissance enjoyed a revival and jewelers looked to older jewels for inspiration. This pendant, made in the nineteenth century, is an excellent representation of the Renaissance Revival style. The pendant hints at a potential practical use. It features a lapis lazuli base which was intended to be engraved with an intaglio like a seal. However, the stone was uncut, and, so, the pendant remains purely decorative.

The enameled jewel is in the shape of the mermaid formed around a large baroque pearl. This concept was borrowed from Renaissance pendants made during the sixteenth century. Renaissance-era jewelers looked at pendants like this as small-scale sculptures meant to showcase the skill of the modeler, chaser, enameller and jeweler. The Florentine sculptor and goldsmith Benvenuto Cellini (1500-71) was known for his creations in this style, and this work is clearly meant to replicate Cellini’s triumphs.