In Venetian arts and crafts

Jewelry and gemstones shimmer across the history of Venice in all possible colors. You can find many art works, from byzantine age onwards, where astonishing jewels feature on the bust, earlobes, wrists, fingers of sensual ladies, gently touching their diaphanous white skin. 

Jewels and gemstones in Venetian art works of the Renaissance

Paintings by Giovanni Bellini and Vittore Carpaccio, but also by Paolo Veronese and Lorenzo Lotto, either portraying real people or representing saints or allegories use jewels and gems to add significance to the art works —not just as decorative elements.

Giovanni Bellini, The Virgin Mary with child between two saints, Detail of St Catherine, 15-16th century Accademia Galleries, Venice

Or moving to the St Ursula, ready to meet the English prince who asked to marry her, in the most celebrated cycle painted by Vittore Carpaccio at the turn of the 15th century.

Vittore Carpaccio, Cycle of St Ursula, detail of the meeting and departure of betrothed couple, end of 15th century, Accademia Galleries, Venice

Jumping ahead and moving to Lorenzo Lotto and Paolo Veronese’s works, more jewels and precious gemstones embellish the women of the Venetian bourgeois or aristocratic families these artists portrayed. The goal is a modest show-off. Considering sumptuary legislation and that portraits in Venice were only accepted when regarding official personalities —and not the private, intimate life—, well these jewels are indeed “modest”. 

Lorenzo Lotto, Portrait of Giovanni della volta with his wife and children, 1547, London National Gallery

Jewelry and Luxury laws in Venice past

Already in 1299 the Venetian government had for instance established that

no one but the bride should wear pearl decorations, and she should be permitted only one strand”.

Of course, women tried to circumvent the laws prohibiting excess in jewelry and gemstones in Venice. 

In 1529 the Venetian legislators had to outlaw not just real stones but also fake ones, possibly in glass! As reported by Blake de Maria in her work:

(…) women of this city with new ingenuity have devised a substitute for chains of gold and pearls. They wear chains, belts, and necklaces and such decorated with alabaster, crystal, lapis lazuli, carnelian, green quartz, mother of pearl, quartz, jasper, agate, porcelain, rock crystal, and every other kind of pastiche”.

In this painting by Pietro della Vecchia, the richly dressed woman gets reproached by St John the Evangelist and St Joseph for her excess. Not to mention the angel showing her a skull, “Memento mori!” or, as Mies van der Rohe said, “less is more!”:

Pietro della Vecchia, Votive Scene, 1640, Accademia Galleries, Venice

Blake de Maria actually claims that if Venetian art works featured precious jewelry, it is also because Venice played a major role in creating a global gemstone market and helped also spread scientific knowledge about them.

Venetian Jewelry for all social classes: the “oro manin” (manin gold)

It is easy to imagine that jewelry and gemstones in Venice would exclusively address a high end market. However, low or middle class women also wore jewels. There is a kind of gold chain, known as “oro manin” or “manini” which instead was very “pop”.

The word “manin” will sound to many of you familiar. The name of the last Doge of Venice was Ludovico Manin. Also the name of the lawyer who led the revolution in 1848-49 against the Hapsburgs was Daniele Manin. However, the name of this pop jewel has nothing to do with these protagonists of the Venetian history. According to Piero Pazzi, the name comes from “hands” and mirrors the tiny fingers that made the miracle of tying this gold chain, composed of microscopic rings. Rings seem to be plaited one into the other. Almost as crochet.

Gold chain “manin”, end of 18th century, Venice; from the exhibit “Intrecci preziosi. La catena tra funzione e ornamento”, 2017 Museo del Gioiello, Collezione Soprana

The “manin gold” was already known in the byzantine world in the 4th century. It was mentioned in an official act in Venice in the 11th, by the Abbey of San Giorgio Maggiore. Its thinness is amazing. Imagine one gram of 22 karat gold was enough to make a ring chain of 12-15 centimeters.

Venetian women would therefore wear many and many strands around their necks. It was a jewel for popular or middle class, handed from generation to the next as part of the dowry. In fact, it was split among sisters in equal measure.

Goldsmiths in Venice today

Today the “oro manin” (manin gold) is no longer produced. What made it affordable was the cheap cost of manufacturing it. Likely low class women in their homes had found a way to seal the rings, one inside the other, using a small flame. Of course, you can find it in the antique market. 

If searching for goldsmiths in Venice, consider that goldsmiths stores used to be in Rialto, along the “Ruga dei Oresi”. However, today you can find some in St Mark’s square, too, along the Mercerie, in Rialto and other districts of Venice. 

A Venetian goldsmith lab: Laberintho

Laberintho is one of these stores in the district of Santa Croce where you can get in and see Marco Venier and Davide Visentin at work. In fact, the shop windows take little space in comparison to the space given to the laboratory and the library full of books about the art of goldsmiths in the history and in the world. 

Both Marco and Davide studied at the art school in Venice and their passion shows in their jewelry. For more than 30 years Laberintho has been their home —a name that explains to me how they have developed projects: different materials and techniques, different values and concepts. Spinning in many directions but with a clear idea always behind.

It is not surprising that Laberintho was selected to feature in Venice Homo Faber 2024 as a sign of excellence in the arts and crafts. Sculptures, mosaics, lost wax meet with gold, silver, mother of pearl and ebony, not to mention precious gems or semiprecious stones and glass. Also original Roman coins, beads, opals or fascinating minerals such as natural dendritic agate stones with its floral motifs will creatively wed with metals in this small lab.

Marco Venier and Davide Visentin, Laberintho – Venezia ©Andrea Pattaro/Vision

Necklace and rings in mosaics, Laberintho, Venice

I love when window cases are opened. While talking about these jewels, you end up talking about Venice and its bonds with other worlds, both time and geography wise. India and Indonesia, Persia, Africa, Afghanistan, in the history and in the present time. That’s what one can call real luxury encapsulated in a small object. 

by Luisella Romeo
registered tourist guide in Venice, Italy
www.seevenice.it

Bibliography
Piero Pazzi, I gioielli nella civiltà veneziana, 1995 ed. Zoppelli.
Blake de Maria, Multifaceted Endeavors: Jewelry and Gemstones in Renaissance Venice, 2013. Source: https://www.academia.edu/3066888/Multifaceted_Endeavors_Jewelry_and_Gemstones_in_Renaissance_Venice
On the cover: Detail from Paolo Veronese, Wedding in Cana, 1563, Louvre Museum, Paris; the painting was part of Napoleon’s booty and it used to be in the refectory of the Benedictine monastery on the island San Giorgio Maggiore
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