Early 19th c Italian Devotional Ring

An early 19th c Italian devotional ring, bearing an image of Madonna and Child beneath a faceted paste cover, in a gold Renaissance revival setting with pierced and chiseled openwork shoulders. According to Diana Scarisbrick (p. 135, “Historic Rings”), rings of this type are Italian in origin and could have been obtained at one of the many shrines to the Virgin Mary that were places of pilgrimage. Two rings bearing similar Madonna and Child iconography are recorded: one in the Hashimoto collection (no. 305, “Historic Rings” by Diana Scarisbrick), and another, belonging to the Catholic religious body of Samatzai, Sardinia, is in the Italian General Catalogue of Cultural Heritage (national code 2000052568). The Madonna and Child of the present ring is rendered in a 13th c ‘maniera greca’ Italo-Byzantine style, reflecting the color palette and appearance of early medieval iconography painted by Italians trained in the Byzantine technique, which imitated the look of Byzantine icons such as those of the Madonna and Child. The setting, reflective of conservative regional taste, preserves design features from earlier rings: the rather petal-like cusped setting is early Renaissance in style, while the large boxed bezel ring head is reminiscent of rings made c. 1600. The shoulder and shank design is however an early 19th c fantasy in a vaguely gothic-revival style, and bear resemblance to the openwork shoulders of another early 19th c Italian devotional ring in the Koch Collection (no. 1521, “Rings: The Alice and Louis Koch Collection” by Anna Beatriz Chadour).
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