NEWSLETTER PIN | NOVEMBRO 2019

Esta edição tem o apoio de várias instituições, entre elas:
    Rijksmuseum, Amsterdão, Holanda
    Academia Maastricht de Belas Artes e Design (MAFAD), Maastricht, Holanda
    Handwerkskammer München und Oberbayern, Munique, Alemanha
    Jakob Bengel Stiftung, Idar-Oberstein, Alemanha
    Arnoldsche Art Publishers, Stuttgart, Alemanha
    PIN - Associação Portuguesa de Joalharia Contemporânea, Lisboa, Portugal

A PIN distribui esta obra em Portugal, para quem estiver interessado contacte-nos.

Jewellery in context (summary)

A multi-disciplinary framework for the study of jewellery

After having worked with jewellery and jewellers in many different capacities, and after having written many texts on these subjects, including a hefty book on Dutch jewellery design in the 20th century, the subject of jewellery has been approached once again in this thesis and this time from scratch. As an art historian and design critic, I wanted to analyse the many different attitudes towards jewellery.
Many books on jewellery have failed to provide a definition of jewellery. Their authors, it seems, did not see a need for defining as common a subject as jewellery. At the same time, however, this allowed them to write whatever they wanted on this matter. They could choose to illustrate their claims with examples from a multitude of pieces that are still with us today, or from the many different ways in which jewellery has been depicted in the course of history. In the Dutch language, there are two words for jewellery: 'sieraad' for all sorts of adornment of the body, and 'juweel' for pieces of adornment in precious metals and with stones. In German, French and Italian, there are in fact similar distinctions in terminology. [...]

This thesis, after defining its subject, focuses on an analysis of the diverging aspects of jewellery as a worldwide phenomenon. This comprehensive approach starts from the view that all human fears and desires have somehow materialized in objects of human adornment. Specifically, my analysis aims at developing a sound theoretical framework for the study of jewellery, the main aim of this thesis.

People have always treated precious jewellery seriously because of its economic value. Today the study of jewellery is a sub-category of the study of the applied arts, which in turn is a sub-category of the discipline of history of art and architecture. In Chapter 3, I disentangle the blessings and shortcomings of the art historians' approach to jewellery. If art history is not a very old discipline, the study of jewellery as a subject in its own right within this framework took off only in the 1950s and 1960s. The history of jewellery as a worldwide phenomenon can be traced back, after recent archaeological findings, some 100,000 years. Due to this discrepancy, perhaps, the study of jewellery has been blemished with many misconceptions and stereotypes, for example the notion that jewellery is meant to beautify women only, and not meant for men as well. Although the obsession of many authors with only the most precious and refined jewels made for wealthy and powerful figures can be considered a matter of taste, it has certainly reduced the social dimension of jewellery to mere proof of envy or naked display of power. The argument in this chapter also underscores that the art history approach to jewellery has largely been dominated by Western attitudes

Next, the relationship between jewellery and the human body is explored in chapter 4. Jewellery is made by human beings, but, just as important, it is worn on the human body. The wearer can give his or her own meaning and even a certain quality to a piece, without altering it. In the study of jewellery, one should carefully address the triad of maker, wearer and onlooker. The basic shapes of pieces of jewellery such as rings, bracelets and necklaces have been remarkably constant, throughout the world as well as across the centuries of which pieces have survived.

Chapter 5 is devoted to the analysis of various disciplinary lines of approach: psychology, sociology, anthropology and material culture; fashion history, with emphasis on recent developments in fashion theory; literature, economics and moral attitudes based on religion, philosophy and distinctive notions of beauty. The economy of jewellery is discussed in terms of the legal, material and technical aspects specific to jewellery. Many of the reflective points of view from the various disciplines are useful for the general study of jewellery, even if so far most authors have paid little attention to them. Exceptions are mostly found in specialised studies and in studies of adornment in non-Western cultures, which discuss interesting social functions and distinctions, as well as relevant ritual values.

The symbolic meaning of jewellery is an infinite theme when considered as a multilayered and many-cultured phenomenon with a history longer than that of any other artefact, except weapons. In chapter 6, I have systemized this symbolism somewhat by distinguishing three main categories: power, fertility and sexuality, and remembrance or memento. In many publications from the last decades, the focus has been on aspects and forms of jewellery that are considered new, while the backbone of jewellery making is rather the continuity of its symbolic shapes and meanings. Jewels are first of all signs of coherence in a society; people recognise them as signs of distinction only from a certain cultural perspective. What is fascinating indeed is the endless way makers and wearers have been able to vary on jewellery over time.
The results of this research are summed up in chapter 7, where I evaluate the values and functions that can be ascribed to jewellery, and the way they relate to each other. By distinguishing between artistic or cultural values, historical value or jewellery as sign in social relationships, emotional or personal values and the unavoidable issue of the economic value of jewellery, this thesis develops a set of standards that can serve as a model for the study of many more subjects within the crafts, applied arts and design.
Finally, my conclusion is quite straightforward: I argue for the need to combine many different points of view and to balance them in sensible ways as the basis for a new theoretical framework for the study of jewellery. In this respect it is appropriate to advance the discipline of art history. After all, the careful material, aesthetic, cultural and historical analysis of objects, which forms the basis of this discipline, is equally crucial in the study of jewellery. In addition, specific knowledge of materials and techniques is needed.

The title of this thesis, Jewellery in context, reflects a multidisciplinary approach. Among other things, such an approach has particular implications for the presentation of jewellery, and even more so for the historical research of this subject. Especially in the Western world, it is important to address the adornments of the not so happy few and the many layers of the upper and middle classes. In this respect, there is much to be learned from anthropology and the study of material culture. Of course, with my background you never work completely from scratch; inevitably you bring in a lot of things you have seen and read, and, in the case of jewellery, also things you have worn yourself. This becomes clear in particular in the notes and the bibliography. In the process of writing this thesis all my own notions about jewellery, my assumptions and my experiences in wearing it, have been pushed around and around. My travels to different continents have also contributed to this dynamic. In the end, however, all these notions and experiences have found their way into the theoretical and multi-disciplinary framework for the study of jewellery.