Middle Ages, Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo

1 July 2020
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This is an article about jewelry styles. The first one was dedicated to the Etruscan, Egyptian, Classical, Byzantine, and Celtic styles.

Other sections in the series include:

Middle Ages

Period: 5th – 15th centuries

Typical Features:

  • Sharp, simplistic, and elegant designs

  • Inlays: freshwater pearls, amber, jet, coral; emeralds and rubies were imported, but could only be afforded by the richest

  • techniques: enameling, gilding, soldering, inlay, casting, grinding, metalwork; stone cutting began at the end of the Middle Ages

  • Biblical themes and afterlife depictions

During the Middle Ages, Western European styles became similar. 

Christianity played a crucial role in medieval jewelry, influencing not only its aesthetics but also the creation process. In the early Middle Ages, monasteries became the center of the jewelry trade. Here, jewelers learned the craft before eventually starting their own ventures in cities. The first guilds of jewelers were established in the 12th century, fostering education, cooperation among workshops, and quality control of products.

You can learn about the design of the jewelry of that time not only from preserved samples and paintings but also from prayer book pages.

Jewelry reflected a clear hierarchy and was viewed as a symbol of status. Laws even restricted the use of gold, silver, and precious stones for commoners. Thus, expensive jewelry was out of reach for non-nobles, even if they had the money. The Crusades and the establishment of trade routes facilitated the spread of art and technology across Europe. This trade development brought a lot of money, which gave the chance to buy expensive things.

Superstitions coexisted with Christianity, so jewelry still played the role of amulets. The choice of metal, color, shape, and stone was significant. Some medieval pieces bear mysterious inscriptions that were probably meant to protect the owner. This suggests the influence of alchemy and the popularity of lapidaries.

Lapidary

Lapidary is a genre of symbolic medieval literature. It described stones’ special magical properties and their symbolic meaning, resonating with Christian teaching.

Liber lapidum ("Book of Stones" or "Book about Stones") was one of the most prominent poetic lapidary works. It describes the properties of sixty stones.

It was composed between 1061 and 1081 by Bishop Marbod of Rennes and was regularly republished.

By the end of the era, stone inlays were polished into cabochons. Enameling remained a popular technique for creating colorful scenes and details.

Typical Medieval Jewelry:

buttons, hairpins, hat pins, rings, weapon decorations, coronets, brooches, bracelets, fibulas, and chains with pendants (crosses, medallions).

Rings were often worn on several fingers.

Hat decorations were popular in the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance. They could reflect the owner's identity via initials, short mottos, coats of arms, as well as allegorical or secular themes. Some of these pins were worn by pilgrims and conveyed moral messages.

Renaissance

Period: 15th – 17th century

Typical Features:

  • аrabesques, plant motifs; Biblical and mythological themes

  • marine theme inspired by geographical discoveries: ships, mermaids, sea monsters

  • enamel-painted portraits, cameos

  • engraved drawings of artists

  • stones: sapphires, rubies, emeralds, pearls

  • precious stone imitations using foiling and doublets; diamond imitations from glass and rock crystal

  • techniques: inlay, casting, gilding, filigree, blackening, grinding, enameling

The Renaissance gradually spread northwards from Italy, replacing the Gothic style of the Middle Ages.

An important aspect of popularizing the style was the circulation of jewelry drawings. Like the items themselves, their spread wasn’t limited by national borders.

In the Renaissance era, the concepts of human and humanism become culturally significant. Once appreciated during classical times, the beauty of the human body gets rediscovered. Because of this, the purpose of the jewelry shifted to its modern sense: to decorate the body itself, regardless of clothing.

This cultural shift democratized jewelry usage, allowing people of any social status to adorn themselves. And although truly luxurious items could be mostly afforded by the nobility, gold, silver, and semi-precious stones jewelry became more accessible.  

However, determining the origin, creator, and age of a jewelry item remains challenging. Jewelers were masters in a specific technique or task. One artist might design the piece, another craftsman might cast it, a third specialist could apply enamel, and a fourth one could inlay stones.

Thanks to the book The Treatises of Benvenuto Cellini on Goldsmithing and Sculpture we now have a more comprehensive knowledge of Renaissance jewelry techniques


The expansion of trade routes and the onset of colonization made accessible some new materials. Many diamonds came from India, emeralds and rubies from Colombia and Sri Lanka, pearls from the Persian Gulf. This inflow of precious stones stimulated the evolution of gem-cutting techniques. At that time, there was invented émail en résille, an enamel technique that involved etching a picture on glass, overlaying it with gold foil, and filling the cavity with powdered enamel. This delicate cloisonné enamel technique required meticulous temperature control.

From the 16th century, Belgium becomes the center of diamond cutting in Europe. It had a preference for table cut and later, rose cut.

Typical Renaissance Jewelry:

Pendants become the main type of Renaissance jewelry. They could be worn on a necklace, hung from a gold chain on a dress, or attached to a belt. 

Some pendants had special purposes. For instance, there were jewelry toothpicks, ear scoops, or pomanders filled with incense. The latter was used to hide the unpleasant body odor arising from poor hygiene.


Aromatic fillers themselves could be expensive, making a pomander a sign of wealth. It was attached to a precious chain worn around the waist or neck, on prayer beads, or even placed on a ring. Pomanders were pendants (most often spherically shaped) with containers for aromatic substances, fragrant herbs, or incense. Some designs featured separate compartments for various fillers.

Pomanders were decorated using engravings, enamel, precious stones, and blackening.

Common pendant designs included biblical scenes depicted through miniature sculptures or sacred monograms such as IHS, believed to derive from the Greek word for "Christ". The initials of the owner or a loved one were also quite prevalent. Due to their personal character, such pendants were often destroyed after the owner's death.

Rings with stones and seals were worn on all five fingers and even sometimes on several joints. These items also had utilitarian functions like holding a compass, sundial, or aromatic materials


Earrings with a simple design were making a comeback. They typically featured pear-shaped pearls or precious stones threaded through a pierced ear or tied around it. Complex hairstyles were decorated with intricate headpieces, strands of pearls or beads, and delicate pendants. There also appeared hair and headdress jewelry items called egrets.

Single earrings shaped like letters, Moors, and sea creatures were worn. From the beginning of the 17th century, the design became more geometric and the earrings’ length has increased. To showcase the jewelry, one wore special decorative belts and slings, some resembling pearl beads or gold chains.

Baroque

Period: 1600 – 1775

Typical Features

  • pearls, rubies, emeralds, topazes

  • flower-themed gold and silver jewelry

  • Moorish art motifs

  • arabesques and symmetrical elements

  • nature-inspired shapes, ribbon bows, bouquets, individual flowers

  • techniques: engraving, inlay with colored stones gradually replacing enameling

  • improved stone-cutting quality, favoring stone display over form

The beginning of the 17th century brought significant changes to fashion, mostly in France and Italy, and somewhat later in Spain. Germany, England, and the Netherlands caught up with these trends later.

The French court led by Louis XIV became the fashion legislators of that time, edging out the Spanish and French Habsburgs of the Renaissance era.

International trade was thriving. The financial standing of merchants and the middle class was rising. The wealthy bourgeoisie began to indulge in luxuries formerly exclusive to the nobility.

To meet growing demands, jewelers fashioned ornaments with identical designs but different materials. Glass rhinestones, or "paste", were used to imitate rubies, emeralds, topazes, and diamonds.

Jewelry was now divided into everyday and formal wear. This trend further developed during the Georgian period.

Trade with the Middle East brought exotic flowers to Europe, sparking a fascination with botany that soon became a popular hobby. This was reflected in jewelry art. Jewelers strove to depict fancy plants in their ornaments.

In Baroque-era creations, the focus shifted toward the vivid colors of gemstones and metals. As such, formwork and enameling gradually became secondary.

In addition to flowers, bow-shaped jewelry became prevalent, presumably evolving from ribbons used to fasten stones onto clothing.

Typical Baroque Jewelry:

Pearl parures (sets) comprised of necklaces, bracelets, hair accessories, and earrings.

By the mid-17th century, earring design had evolved to include more intricate details. Luxurious chandeliers and girandole earrings gained popularity. The brooch took on its familiar look and a purely decorative function. This can be attributed to Marquise de Sévigné, a French court lady. It is believed that she came up with the idea of wearing a satin bow and pendant on a clasp on her corsage. Other ladies followed this new trend and began to wear similar jewelry on their corsages.

A chandelier (French: chandelier – lamp, chandelier) refers to earrings consisting of a central part and numerous pendants.

Girandoles (French: girandole – candelabrum, candlestick) are earrings with a central part and three voluminous pendants.

Such jewelry was bulky and heavy and therefore was challenging to wear. To make the structure lighter, hidden loops and ribbons were used to redistribute some of the weight to the upper part of the ear or a ribbon in the hair.

Fabric or chain-style belts adorned with pendants were also considered standalone ornaments, without any additional functions. While watches were incorporated into other items during the Renaissance, they became standalone jewelry during this period. All jewelry art techniques of that time were used in watch design.


Rococo

Period: 1730 – 1780

In some respects, the Rococo style is a continuation of the Baroque, but it surpasses it in opulence and decorativeness. Although it influenced jewelry art to a lesser extent than other genres, some of its distinctive features are worth noting:

  • pastel tones

  • asymmetry, intricate details, curved lines

  • rising demand for paste (glass imitations)

  • the emergence of animalistic motives

  • depictions of secular everyday life in painted jewelry

Ornate necklaces, worn with low-cut dresses, were considered the primary items in a noblewoman's jewelry collection.

The high demand for emeralds, rubies, topaz, and diamonds led to a shortage, necessitating the use of less costly stones: yellow chrysoberyl, orange topaz, and citrine. The colors of these stones matched the predominant colors of that period's architecture, which contributed to their popularity.


Nostalgia for the Middle Ages and Italian-French Renaissance revived interest in precious stone symbolism. Inserts formed an acronym abbreviated from the first letters of the mineral’s name.

"Regard" and "Dearest" were among the most common acronyms. Diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphires, amethysts, and garnets were used for this jewelry.

Rhinestone paste gained popularity not only among the bourgeoisie and ordinary people but even within court circles. Quality crystals required skill and time, and due to the growing demand, they were valued almost as much as precious stones. However, the result was worth the effort: jewelry featuring such rhinestones even found its way into Marie Antoinette's collection.

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