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WILLIAMS, DYFRI and OGDEN, JACK, Greek Gold Jewelry of the Classical World, Harry N. Abrams, Inc., New York, 1995
Profusely illustrated book written by one of the world's leading experts on ancient jewelry. 256 pages. This book brings together for the very first time nearly two hundred of the finest pieces of Greek jewelry of the Classical period from all parts of the Mediterranean world. Such an international project, which combines the treasures of The State Hermitage in St. Petersburg, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the British Museum, has been achieved thanks to the close and enthusiastic collaboration between three of the world's greatest museums, which are working together for the first time on a joint exhibition. The collections of these three museums span the whole of the ancient world: The Hermitage provides the extravagant pieces specially made for the wealthy peoples of Crimea and excavated from the huge burial mounds of that region, while the British and Metropolitan Museums offer material not only from the cities of ancient Greece, but also from the rich Greek colonies in southern Italy, the Greek cities of Asia minor, Cyprus and the rest of the eastern Mediterranean. Gold has caused passion to flare ever since it was first discovered. Its appeal is both visual and tactile; its magic is its virtual indestructibility. These questions, together with its rarity, meant that it was ideal for transformation into jewelry, and gold jewelry has been worn by both men and women since time immemorial. There is, however, much more to the study of jewelry than any such initial emotional reaction. Like any category of art, jewelry represents a marriage of raw materials, individual skills and ingenuity with the social and religious traditions that dictated its forms. To understand ancient jewelry we must combine stylistic, structural and material-based research, and to understand its significance we must set it in its social and historical context. introduction to one particular region of production and its history. This introductory essay, however, will examine wider aspects of Classical Greek jewelry, including the technology of ancient jewelry and what we can discover of the jewels themselves; the functions of Greek jewelry and how it was worn, its iconography and its relationship to sculpture and drawing.
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