Download Renaissance Gemstone Ring Western Europe (Italy?], mid

Renaissance Gemstone Ring
Western Europe (Italy?], mid-16th century
gold, ruby and enamels
Bezel 10 x 10 x 8 mm.; circumference 59 mm.; weight 10.7 gr.; US size 8 ¾; UK size R
This fashionable and heavy ring combines the skills of the master goldsmith, adept at sculpting
the forms of hoop and bezel, and the taste of the painter, with its attractive Ceylon ruby and
traces of red, white, and blue enamel. Women portrayed in High Renaissance Italian paintings
often wear rings such as this one. This ring forms a transition between the plainer Gothic medieval
gemstone rings, especially the cusped rings of which echoes remain here, and the later Renaissance
and Baroque rings on which goldsmiths sculpted elaborated shoulder decoration. Women
portrayed by High Renaissance painters such as Raphael and Veronese wear rings similar to this
one.
Description
Squared box bezel set with a cabochon ruby from Ceylon; double crescents on the sides; rear of
the bezel engraved with quatrefoil, once filled with enamel. The ribbed panels below were filled
alternatively with red and white enamel. Round hoop joining the bezel at the shoulders, carved in
high relief with volutes with traces of blue enamel. In excellent condition.
Literature
For comparisons, see Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, F453 (similar box bezel here set with an
emerald and a ruby; published in Taylor, 1998, no. 695). Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, Giambattista
Moroni, Portrait of a Young Lady, 1560, inv. SK-A-3036 (one of the three she is wearing is very
similar to the present ring).
Reference number 307-2
Price: $25,500
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