c.1610-20 Late Renaissance Cross Pendant

A c.1610-20 late Renaissance cross pendant, of Spanish origin and in a Latin shape of 22k yellow gold, set with table cut amethysts in boxed bezels, the reverse with champlevé enamel decoration. Amethysts were discovered in Catalonia in the early 17th century, and appear with increased frequency in Spanish jewels made throughout the century. Due to the color purple’s ecclesiastical significance, amethysts were considered particularly suitable for devotional jewels. An early 17th c cross in the Victoria & Albert Museum (344-1870), while of a different shape, is set with similar table-cut amethysts in boxed bezels, its back bearing a comparable cross inlay of translucent green enamel.The present pendant’s geometric enamel design, worked in a base palette of black and white, is a rather distinctive Spanish look from the tail-end of the Renaissance, seen on the backs and trims of most Spanish jewels made in the opening decades of the 17th century. According to art historians Patricia Muller and Clare Phillips, this enameling style is known as ‘à la moresque’, after its Hispano-Moresque source inspiration. Several design drawings from the Llibres de Passanties, dated 1609, 1613, and 1617, show jewels with this style of enameling (see p. 77 & 125, “Jewels in Spain” by Patricia Muller). Specifically, moresque-type enameling can be found on early 17th c Spanish crosses in the Louvre (OA 2314) and State Historical Museum of Russia (ОК 11397); both are comparable to the present pendant in shape (Latin form with knobbed tips and a disk-shaped bail) and workmanship (boxed bezels with tight rub-overs). Following and in response to the ornamental excesses of the High Renaissance, jewels of the c.1610-20 decade show a marked minimalism, defined by clean lines and simple repetitions of boxed bezel set stones. The 1617 portrait of Anne of Denmark (National Portrait Gallery NPG 127) shows several jewels in this late Renaissance style, including a minimalistic cross of table cut stones. Another cross in this style, lined with table cut quartz crystals, is in the Victoria & Albert Museum (M.122-1975). The present cross and its museum counterparts are all similar in size, proportioned around 6 cm in length and 3-4 cm in width.
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