Rich Of Jewels And Gold Objects example essay topic

'Gold is the most exquisite of all things... Whosoever possesses gold can acquire all that he desires in this world. Truly, for gold he can gain entrance for his soul into paradise. ' Columbus The earliest evidence for metallurgy in the New World, dating from before 1500 BC, consists of bits of thin worked gold foil found in the hands of a man in a grave in the southern highlands of Peru.

Nearby lay what was probably a tool-worker's kit. The oldest extant elegant gold work is of the Chav in style, dating from about 800 BC. In the ensuing centuries metalworking slowly spread, southward to northwest Argentina and northward to Colombia, toward the end of the last millennium BC, and to Central America in the early centuries AD. Although tools and weapons were made, metal was used principally for objects that symbolized supernatural power, and, by identification with this power, lordly status.

Mythological motifs and beings were often depicted - intermediaries between man and the forces of nature. Gold was an important trade item, and metal objects known by their style to have been made in one place have been found in quite distant sites, yet gold had little market value in itself; what was valued was the life-giving way it worked. Its symbolism was usually associated with the sun, hence with life and agricultural generation. It was important that metal imitated celestial light.

Early sources tell us that the Inca thought of gold as 'the sweat of the sun,' and of silver as 'the tears of the moon'. Granulation has been around for centuries, used by our ancestors, it goes further back than the renaissance, the ancient Egyptians used granulation, they did it so fine that even today with the latest of technological advances we struggle to reach such perfection. The very antique technique of granulation has a past rich of traditions and of culture: in the oriental, ancient Egyptian and Mycenaean jeweller's of the second century b. C. attestations of this kind of work are infact found. But it is with the Etruscans that the granulation has its greatest splendour, in the so-called oriental period (seventh cen b. C. ): the most important centre is "Vetulonia", where the manufacture reaches such a grade of refinement that the gold is reduced to small grains that look like dust.

The technique of granulation consists in welding small spheres on top of a lamina, according to the design established in advance: gold is preferred for its great ductility and malleability, while silver is used less. Immense treasures have been found in the Etruscan tombs, rich of jewels and gold objects, that are made precious with refined decorums obtained with the granulation. In the Etruscan jewels the granules are often disposed in a way to form geometric and floral decorations: the greatest difficulty is represented exactly by the welding, because the small spheres risk, with the high heat, to lose their conformation. Minuscule dots, in slight relief, allow the precious metal to "breathe" in a special way. This technique, known as granulation and rooted in prehistory, was used on jewellery and objects of metal from Mesopotamia, Mycenae, Crete, Etruria, etc. Then, about the year 1000, it disappeared almost completely.

Maria Luisa Vito bello-van der School, an Italian married to a Dutchman, has re-established this rare process which requires exceptional skill and makes it possible to create highly original pieces of jewellery. A creator of international repute, she has been running a small arts and crafts business in Milan known as DE FOP for nearly 15 years.