Jewelers Of Renaissance

(via 5000 Years of Gems and Jewelry) Frances Rogers and Alice Beard writes:

8. Rings Innumerable

Among the advantages possessed by rings of the Renaissance was the prodigious quantity of them that one could (and not infrequently did) wear all at the same time. Rings on all ten fingers, counting the thumbs, and three rings to a finger—as shown in a contemporary portrait—a display like that runs into numbers. Men as well as women loaded their hands with rings. There were rings for ‘every finger joint up to the very nail.’ In a luxury-loving age quantity was a most desirable asset. Perhaps the dandy stopped somewhere short of losing power to bend his fingers by reason of their ornaments, but extras could always be strung on his necklace, or fastened on his golden hatband or swung pendent from his sword hilt or find a place on a rosary tied to his forearm. There was always room for spare rings when space on fingers was pre-empted.

There were rings to be worn outside gloves and gloves slashed for the purpose of showing the jeweled rings worn under the glove. The list is interminable. It is impossible to bring all rings within definite limits of classification. Many of them overlapped and served two or more purposes.

The following classifications are loosely grouped for convenience of references, and therefore disclaim the too technical distinctions. We will consider rings under four headings:

- Ecclesiastical rings
- Curative rings
- Rings of romance and sentiment
- Fancy or gadget rings

- Ecclesiastical Rings
Members of the higher clergy, even as the Roman senators of classical times, wore rings as badges of office. A special type of ring was an essential accessory to the canonical vestments. But the rings of the clergy had also a symbolic significance according to the precious stones with which they were set. A sapphire, blue like the heavens, meant purity; a ruby, red like the rising sun, meant glory; an emerald, a green like the cool verdure of earth, meant tranquility; and the clear, limpid crystal meant simplicity. These rings were made especially for the individual who wore them, and when he died his ring was usually buried with him.

The sapphire had long been the gem assigned to cardinals, tradition having honored the sapphire as the stone on which was written the Law given to Moses. According to a decree issued by the Pope in the ninth century the cardinal wore his ring on the right hand, the hand which gave the blessing.

During great ceremonies, certain types of clerical rings were worn, not on the bare hand but over elaborate gloves which were themselves sometimes heavily bejeweled. These rings were large, though not as surprisingly large as the so-called ‘papal rings’ of the later Middle Ages, which were so massive that obviously they were never intended to be worn on the finger.

Papal rings have been found in various countries, but no record has been discovered which would explain their use. It has been surmised that they acted as credentials for a messenger when he was sent by the Pope to a king, and probably the weighty ring was worn suspended by a cord about the neck. This supposition has been arrived at from the fact that a papal ring often bore the combined arms of the Pope and the king, and although elaborately carved, the materials used had little intrinsic value. Often such rings were only gilded bronze and the ‘stone’ nothing but paste, or perhaps crystal set over colored foil. Its very lack of value ensured safe conduct for the papal ring on its various journeyings—such an intrinsically valueless jewel would be of small interest to any bandit even though the woods were full of these gentry.

Customs of the Church are not wont to change with the rapidity of secular customs. Rings worn as sacred emblems of the Church sometimes remain unchanged for centuries. A most interesting example is the Ring of the Fisherman, symbol of the Pope’s office as head of the Catholic Church. From medieval times, through the Renaissance and down to our own times the Fisherman’s Ring has survived the changing boundary lines both of land and of thought.

The ring is made of gold and engraved with a device of St Peter fishing from a boat. Every pope wears the Fisherman’s Ring; but although it is the same in form and meaning, it is not actually the same ring. At the death of a pope the ring of office is removed from his finger and later it is broken. A new Fisherman’s Ring is made for the new pope, the title which he chooses is engraved upon it, and it is then placed upon his finger during the coronation ceremonies.

To be worn by the layman, there was the ‘decade ring,’ which could be used in place of a rosary. It had ten round projecting knobs—equivalent to beads—and a crucifix or a Madonna, or sometimes the sacred monogram and three nails engraved on the bezel. An Ave was repeated as each knob was touched and a Pater Noster at the bezel.

Sometimes the religious ring was a reliquary. There is a record of a piece of the True Cross set in a ring, and also a ring containing a ‘relick of St Peter’s finger.’

A ring, by reason of its circular form, signifies eternity. Therefore it was considered best fitted of all jewelry to bear an emblem which should remind the wearer of the transitory nature of life and the necessity of being prepared for death. Many of the religious rings worn by the laity were intended as a none too gentle reminder that all is vanity. One of the most favored designs was a skull and crossbones with an inscription, such as ‘Behold-The-End,’ ‘Dye-To-Live,’ ‘Rather-Death-Than-Fals-Fayth,’ or some equally chilling admonition.

Represented in one form or another, this idea of remembering death in the midst of life can be traced back to the ancient Egyptians. In medieval England, under supervision of the Church, it was called to attention in the form of a morality play showing how death comes in contact with all classes of humanity from the Pope down. In Italy, painters and sculptors decorated church walls with the grim theme.

At first the various representations were grave and solemn, but later they assumed the nature of a dance in which Death led his reluctant victims to their inevitable fate—the sardonic danse macabre.

Toward the middle of the sixteenth century the warning memento mori took on the guise of a fashion, greatly stimulated by the favorite of Henry II of France, Diane de Poitiers. The lady, being a widow, wore black and white, and much of her jewelry bore symbols of death. The French court followed suit, and the gruesome style was set.

Jewelers Of Renaissance (continued)

The Rise Of Landscape Painting

(via The Outline of Art) William Orpen writes:

As Turner altered his style of oil painting, so also he revolutionized his practice in water color. Originally, in common with the older members of the Early English Water Color School, Turner began a drawing by laying in the gradations of light and shade with grey or some other neutral tint, and afterwards represented te hue of each object by tinting it with color; but this he found resulted in a certain heaviness of aspect. Accordingly, in his later water colors he proceeded to treat the whole surface of his drawing as color, using at one the pigments by which the scene might most properly be represented. By delicate hatchings he achieved wonderful qualities of broken hues, air tints, and atmosphere, so that the view when finished glowed and sparkled with the brilliance of Nature’s own colors. This method of putting on the color direct, without any under-painting of the subject in light and shade, has been to a great extent the foundation of modern painting.

Determined to outshine his fellows, Turner had a habit, dreaded by other artists, of coming to the Academy on Varnishing Day armed with his paint box, and putting a brilliant touch or two on his own canvas when necessary to heighten its effect if its brilliance happened to be in any way challenged by that of a neighboring picture. The brightness of the yellows and reds in his ‘Fighting Temeraire being Towed to her Last Berth’ is said to be due to after-touches put on to ‘kill’ a highly colored painting by Geddes which hung near it in the Academy of 1839. Towards another landscape painter Turner was merciless, but he had respect and kindly feeling for Sir Thomas Lawrence, and on one occasion he darkened a landscape of his with lamp-black because it injured the effect of pictures by Lawrence on either side.

As he grew older, and particularly after his visit to Venice in 1832, Turner became more and more ambitious of realizing to the uttermost the fugitive radiances of dawn and sunset. Light, or rather the color of light, became the objective of his painting, to the exclusion of almost everything else, and few of his contemporaries could follow him as he devoted his brush more and more to depicting the pageant of the heavens. His work when exhibited was severely criticised and held up to ridicule and mirth by Thackeray and other wits; he was regarded as a madman and accused, as other artists after him have been, of ‘flinging a pot of paint in the public’s face.’ Even ‘The Fighting Temeraire,’ which seems to us so poetic today in its contrast of moonlight with sunlight, to match the contrast between the sailing ship that was passing away and the steamer that heralded the future, even this work was deemed to be exaggerated and extravagant, and to most of the admirers of his earlier pictures paintings like ‘The Approach to Venice’ were utterly incomprehensible.

Fortunately, Turner was now independent of patrons and could paint as he liked. During the earlier part of his career he had amassed a considerable fortune, a great part of which was derived from the engravings of his works, for he was a good business man, able to retain an interest in his works. He had commenced in 1808 the series of etchings known as the ‘Liber Studiorum,’ and the excellence of these plates—now of great rarity and value—had led to his employment as an illustrator, and his fame was greatly increased and extended by the beautiful work he did for books like Roger’s Italy and Poems, The Rivers of France, Southern Coast Scenery, etc. He had a fine studio at what is now 23 Queen Anne Street, and he also owned a house at Twickenham, where he lived with his father, who had retired from business and made his home with his son from about 1807 till his death in 1829. Here, with his father and an old housekeeper, Turner led a retired life; but though habitually taciturn and reserved, he could be jovial at a convival gathering of artists which he now and then attended.

The Rise Of Landscape Painting (continue)

Heard On The Street

As long as the world keeps changing, there is risk.

Colored Stone Update

It's hard to believe that suppliers of Andesine were ignorant about treatment (s), but now colored stone industry sources are saying that Andesine starts out as near colorless feldspar, and is then heat treated + the red-orange and green andesine we've been seeing over the past few years is the result of heat treatment (shocking!) + if in doubt always consult a reputed gem testing laboratory.

Useful links:
www.jewelrytelevision.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKBb_6VUEag

The Manga Bible

I found the Bible rooted in manga, the Japanese form of graphic novel, The Manga Bible: From Genesis to Revelation by Ajinbayo Akinsiku interesting because it focuses on action and epic + it opens up new ways of understanding Scripture + I liked it.

Useful link:
www.themangabible.com

Valentine's Day Trend

As Valentine's Day approaches, a new trend is rippling through the flower, chocolate and diamond industry: consumers want items they purchase that are not harmful to the Earth and its inhabitants + more and more people are starting to ask questions about where products are coming from + demand a more socially and environmentally friendly product.

Useful links:
Flower
www.amystewart.com
www.lewisriver.com
www.esmeraldafarms.com
www.scscertified.com

Chocolate
www.wholefoodsmarket.com
www.equalexchange.com
www.seedsofchange.com
www.dagobachocolate.com
www.uncommongoods.com

Diamond
www.brilliantearth.com

The Geography Of Bliss

The Geography Of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World by Eric Weiner is an interesting book, with a mixture of travel + psychology + science + humor to investigate not what happiness is, but where it is + I liked it.

Useful link:
www.ericweinerbooks.com

Oil Industry Art Show

An art exhibition (Pier Arts Centre in Stromness) documenting life in the North Sea oil and gas industry by Sutherland-based artist Sue Jane Taylor is being held in Orkney + it features paintings, drawings and etchings, a visual record of the impact the North Sea oil industry has had on communities over 20 years.

Useful links:
www.suejanetaylor.co.uk
www.pierartscentre.com

Jewelers Of Renaissance

(via 5000 Years of Gems and Jewelry) Frances Rogers and Alice Beard writes:

7. Enseignes

The little leaden saints or ‘tokens’ so extensively worn during the Middle Ages introduced a fashion that persisted through many years of the Renaissance. These emblems, not originally intended for ornament, were often pinned or sewed to the hat, from which conspicuous vantage point they indicated that the wearer had made pilgrimage to the shrine of some saint.

As times changed, the emblems as a whole took on secular, rather than purely religious, significance and the onetime token frankly developed into an adornment known as an enseigne or ‘medallion’. Almost everyone who had a hat saw to it that his headgear bore some kind of emblem. If a man were poor his hat ornament was made of one of the baser metals, copper or bronze. These could be turned out by the dozen, because instead of being handmade they were cast or stamped with a die.

Far different was the enseigne of the rich, termed te bijou par excellence. The goldsmith gave to this hat jewel his highest level of workmanship, his greatest ingenuity of design and his richest materials.

Now beyond a certain point, description of visual appearances is all too prone to leave the same impression as a frame without a picture. The ‘picture’ in this case was the meaning of the device. The typical enseigne of the period, apart from its character as an ornament, illustrates a certain phase of mental attitude.

The Renaissance was a riddle-loving age, an age of quip and quirk and antic disposition. Set conspicuously on the hat for all to see, these ‘toys of the imagination’ embodied this characteristic. They expressed some fancy, notion or idea peculiar to the wearer, but they expressed it indirectly, half revealing, half concealing the meaning. It was like trimming your hat with a rebus which gave the observer an opportunity to exercise his wits on solving the bejeweled puzzle. Rather a welcome pastime in dull company.

Jewelers Of Renaissance (continued)

The Rise Of Landscape Painting

(via The Outline of Art) William Orpen writes:

At Dr Monro’s house Turner met John Robert Cozens (1752-99), a most poetic painter in water colors and the son of a water color artist, Alexander Cozens, who died in 1786; and while Turner owed most to his diligent study of Nature, he always owned his obligation to Cozens, who was indeed his immediate predecessor in water color and the first to produce those atmospheric effects which Turner rivalled and excelled.

In 1799, at age of twenty four, Turner was elected as Associate of the Royal Academy and henceforward, surer of himself and his public, he eschewed the merely topographical imitation of landscape for a nobler art. He looked beyond the mere details to a larger treatment of Nature, seizing all the poetry of sunshine, and the mists of morn and eve, with the grandeur of storm and the glow of sunset. In feeling his way to this period of his first style Turner looked not only to Nature but also to the example of his great predecessors, Claude Richard Wilson, and the Dutch painters of the seventeenth century. The influence of the Dutch School, and particularly of Van de Velde, is apparent in many of these early works, even in ‘Calais Pier’, which, painted in 1803, was held by Ruskin to be ‘the first which bears the sign manual and sign mental of Turner’s colossal power.’ Already, however, Turner had improved on Van de Velde, who was never able to interpret weather so truly and vigorously as it is painted in the rolling sea and windy sky of this stimulating sea piece.

The year before this picture was painted, Turner was elected R A (1802), and during the succeeding years he spent much time in traveling, visiting France, Switzerland, Italy, and the Rhine, and producing innumerable water colors, as well as some of his finest oil paintings.

That splendor of the sky, which was to be peculiar glory of Turner, is first indicated in his ‘Sun rising through Vapor’, painted in 1807, and it was possibly because this was the first picture in which he was able to obtain the effect after which he strove most earnestly that he was so attached to this picture. He sold it, but twenty years later, at the De Tabley sale of 1827, he bought it back for £514 10s. in order that he might bequeath this to the nation, together with his ‘Dido Building Carthage’ on condition they should be hung in perpetuity beside Claude’s ‘Marriage of Isaac and Rebecca’ and ‘Embarkation of the Queen of Sheba.’ Conscious of his own powers and confident in the verdict of posterity, Turner was jealous of other painter’s fame, and he was enraged at the way in which English connoisseurs extolled the pictures of Claude while they neglected his own works.

The pictures already mentioned, together with the lovely ‘Crossing the Brook,’ a view near Weir Head, Tamar, looking towards Plymouth and Mount Edgcumbe, also painted in 1815, may be regarded as the chief masterpieces in oils of Turner’s first period. After 1820 a great change was manifest in his manner of painting. In the early paintings dark predominated, with a very limited portion of light, and he painted solidly throughout with a vigorous and full brush; but his later works are based on a light ground with a small proportion of dark, and using opaque touches of te purest orange, blue purple, and other powerful colors, Turner obtained infinitely delicate gradations which produced a splendid and harmonious effect. This new manner is first seen in his ‘Bay of Baiæ,’ painted in 1823, and six years later, in 1829, it is revealed in all its glory in one of Turner’s most beautiful and poetical works, ‘Ulysses Deriding Polyphemus,’ in which, as Redgrave has said, ‘while in no way gaudy, it seems impossible to surpass the power of color which he has attained, or the terrible beauty in which he has clothed his poetic conception.’ In this glorious picture, ‘a work almost without a parallel in art,’ the nominal subject has little more power over us today than it has in the Claudes. Turner’s painting attracts us primarily, not as an illustration to a familiar story from Homer, but as a glowing piece of color, a magnificently decorative transcription of a flaming sunrise. And with all this the picture is a ‘magic casement’ through which our imagination looks out on a world of romance, for in this color is all the intoxication of triumph, of final victory after perils escaped; and though Turner himself probably did not know it, and few who look upon his masterpiece are conscious of the fact, this picture subconsciously expresses the elation, the pride, and even the touch of insolence, that all England felt after her victorious issue from the Napoleonic wars.

The Rise Of Landscape Painting (continued)

Synthetic Diamond Update

The latest CVD (chemical vapor deposition) synthetic diamonds produced by Apollo Diamond Inc are better in color and clarity (a significant improvement) + well-proportioned, relatively large colorless, near-colorless and fancy-colored diamonds (comparable in quality to many natural diamonds in the gem market) are available (0.14-0.71ct range) + for now CVD synthetic diamonds are identifiable by their (unusual internal graining, fluorescence zoning) unique gemological and spectroscopic features + I think, CVD diamond growth techniques will continue to improve in the coming years and will eventually be in the gem market + if in doubt always consult a reputed gem testing laboratory.

Useful link:
www.apollodiamond.com

Gem Scam Lives On

Siriporn Sachamuneewongse writes about the typical gem scams in Bangkok (Thailand) + the official view (s) + the dos and dont's + other viewpoints @ http://www.bangkokpost.com/100208_Perspective/10Feb2008_pers002.php

Useful links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thai_gem_scam
www.geocities.com/thaigemscamgroup
www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AJHi8uC7T8

Eric Touchaleaume

Eric Touchaleaume has been described as the Indiana Jones of furniture collecting + he has spent the past decade scouring remote, often lawless regions in search of valuable relics, often at considerable personal risk + he has been a Prouvé specialist, and has an amazing collection + he is one-of-a-kind-dealer with unique taste for designs + I liked them.

Useful links:
www.galerie54.com
www.designmuseum.org
http://arts.guardian.co.uk/art/design/story/0,,2253696,00.html

GFI Group

The New York-based GFI Group Inc has been named by the Energy Risk magazine as the top commodity broker in the annual rankings + the group provides brokerage services, market data and analytics software products to institutional clients in markets for a range of credit, financial, equity and commodity instruments.

Useful links:
www.energyrisk.com
www.gfigroup.com
www.eprm.com

What I Learned Before I Sold To Warren Buffett

What I Learned Before I Sold to Warren Buffett by Barnett C., Jr. Helzberg + Barnett Helzberg is a simple/readable book + it's an entrepreneur's journey with many nuggets of wisdom + I liked it.

Count Basie

William 'Count' Basie was an American jazz pianist + organist + bandleader + composer + he is commonly regarded as one of the most important jazz bandleaders of his time + his music was characterized by his trademark jumping beat + the contrapuntal accents of his own piano + I liked the music.

Useful links:
www.countbasieorchestra.com
www.countbasietheatre.org
http://countbasie.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Count_Basie

The Auction House Spin

Economist writes about the colorful auctioneers and their way of doing business + interesting highlights of the week at Sotheby’s and Christie’s + other viewpoints @ http://www.economist.com/daily/columns/artview/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10673810

Jewelers Of Renaissance

(via 5000 Years of Gems and Jewelry) Frances Rogers and Alice Beard writes:

6. Girdles And Their Pendants

Very useful as well as ornamental in a period of clothes with few if any pockets was the Renaissance girdle and its pendants.

For everyday-wear the housewife’s girdle was usually a long flexible strip of leather or some textile which was worn diagonally from the waistline at the right side, crossing to the left thigh, where the outer skirt was pulled over it in a loop, thus making a graceful arrangement of drapery. Hanging suspended from her girdle where they were handy were the housewife’s keys. In a day when dwellings of the upper classes were spacious and attendants many, locks and keys were very necessary. Also attached to the girdle was her purse and perhaps a knife or whatever small implement she might have occasion to use.

Sometimes instead of being made of leather or stuff the girdle was a flat chain of silver-gilt or bronze silvered or gilded. Whatever its material, the girdle was ornamented, more often than not, with metal. For formal occasions it generally encircled the body firmly and was sumptuously decorated with enamels and gems and fastened by elaborate clasps. The attached collections of such dangling nicknacks as were favored by the wearer included mirrors, fans, miniatures, knives, tiny books and—most universally worn—a pomander containing perfume and perhaps cosmetics. All these appendages were made or embellished by the jeweler.

The books, usually devotional in character, were jewels in themselves. One, supposed to have belonged to Queen Elizabeth, measured two and half by two inches; its cover of gold was decorated with variously colored enamels and set with a shell cameo. Another of Elizabeth’s girdle pendants was a ‘rounde clock fullie garnished with dyamonds hanging thereat,’ although portable ‘clockes’ or watches were not in general use until a century later.

It is interesting to note during our own times a return of the fashion of wearing pendants attached to the belt. The approach of a belle of the nineties was heralded by the rustle of her silk petticoat (specially advertised for its ability to rustle) and the musical tinkle of her chatelaine. From her belt dangled not only her purse but a heterogeneous collection of elaborate silver nicknacks, more or less useful and generally audible. Sound was an accessory to fashionable costume.

Jewelers Of Renaissance (continued)

The Rise Of Landscape Painting

(via The Outline of Art) William Orpen writes:

3

The establishment of landscape in the popular estimation as a branch of art, equal to the highest achievements of portraiture or historical painting, was finally achieved by Turner, the greatest glory of British art. Joseph Mallord William Turner was born, appropriately enough, on Shakespeare’s birthday, April 23, 1775; appropriately, because he was destined to become the Shakespeare of English painting. He was the son of a London hairdresser in humble circumstances, who lived and had his shop at 26 Maiden Lane. Covent Garden. As a boy he showed ability as a draughtsman and colorist, and his father exhibited some of the lad’s drawings in his shop, where now and again they found a purchaser. One or two artists who went to the elder Turner to be shaved noticed his son’s drawings, and urged the father to give his son a proper artistic training. So at the age of eleven young Turner was sent to the Soho Academy and had lessons from Thomas Malton, who grounded him well in perspective, and also from Edward Dayes; and in 1789, when he was forteen, he was admitted to the school of the Royal Academy.

Meanwhile he was managing to support himself by selling a few sketches now and then, by putting in backgrounds for architects who wanted nice drawings to show their clients, and by coloring prints for engravers. While tinting prints for John Raphael Smith (1752-1812), the mezzotinter, who made a fortune by engraving the work of Morland, Turner met the brilliant water colorist, Girtin, with whom he made friends, and Girtin introduced him to friendly house of Dr Thomas Monro, at 8 Adelphi Terrace. Here the two young men and other students were welcome every evening, for Monro was an enthusiastic connoisseur who had a studio fitted up for his protégés to work in; he gave them oyster suppers, a few shillings for pocket money when they had nothing of their own, and free medical attendance if they became ill.

In 1797 Turner exhibited his first oil picture, a study of moonlight, at the Royal Academy, but most of the views he painted at this time were in water color. In 1792 he was commissioned to make a series of topographical drawings for a magazine, and this enables him to make the first of those sketching tours which ever afterwards were a feature of his artistic life and to which we owe his enormous range of subject. In the following year he opened his own studio in Hand Court, Maiden Lane, where he exhibited and sold the drawings he had made on his tours.

Turner never had any difficulty making a living, and we may account for his success where so many other landscape artists had failed by the fact that he established his reputation in water color before he proceeded to oils. From the time of Richard Wilson there had always been a demand for topographical drawings in water colors, and Wilson’s contemporary, Paul Sandby, R A (1725-1809), the ‘father of water color art’, was one of the first to popularize landscape by going about the country and sketching gentlemen’s mansions and parks. Landowners were pleased to purchase his and other artists’ watercolors of views on their estates, and their pride in their own property was gradually converted by these artists into a real appreciation of the beauties of Nature.

The Rise Of Landscape Painting (continued)

Heard On The Street

It was not globalization / deregulation / technology / or free markets + it was greed, the root cause of the world’s economic problems + the bankers were greedy to lend to earn interest, while the public were greedy to borrow money + spend on things they couldn’t afford—period.