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This time, we have added new items from Spain and launched a new collection.
The Spanish Collection introduces jewelry from old vintage to modern Spanish production.
We have researched the history of Spanish jewelry and reflected it in this purchase so that you can enjoy authentic jewelry at reasonable prices.
I think that you can fully enjoy the characteristics of Spanish jewelry.
The first was purchased from a collector in Barcelona.
The blog summarizes the historical background and characteristics of Spanish jewellery.
If you don't mind, please take a look.
spanish jewelry
First of all, Spanish jewelery is strongly influenced by Spain in Iberia, Portugal, France and post-Renaissance Italy.
What is Iberia?
Parts of modern Spain, Portugal and France were once part of Iberia.This includes Andalusia, Galicia, Castile, Leon, Navarre, Aragon and Catalonia.After the fall of Roman rule in the 6th century BC, this part of Europe was a mixture of Christianity, Judaism and Islam, with Christianity in the north and Muslims in the south.
Despite the apparent divisions between these three religions, they are believed to have successfully merged and formed an alliance.Especially in the fields of design, art, and architecture, Christian, Muslim, and Jewish people worked in the same workshops, where their skills were often shared.
While this may seem a utopian view, there are clearly tensions and conflicts between different peoples, and in the sumptuous ornaments, buildings, and artworks produced as a result of their joint efforts. has much evidence of that.
For example, two different pieces of jewelery produced in Iberia dating from the 15th and 16th centuries have very similar aesthetics.In particular, there are fine gold filigree and intricate floral enamel enamel, both with Christian and Muslim religious inscriptions.
Iberia began to disintegrate in the 15th century, where the major powers Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile made international and strong marriages.Isabella, then a devout Catholic of Castile, wanted to strengthen her reign in Iberia and make her country a purely Christian one.However, the Islamic motifs once used never completely disappeared.During this period, the Italian Renaissance and papal power were at their peak, and the decorative styles and painting techniques of the time changed jewellery.It was a fusion of the so-called Italian Renaissance Gothic and Iberian.
What are the typical Iberian motifs?
Mudéjar
Mudéjar was the original term referring to the Muslim group that remained in Iberia in the late Middle Ages despite the Christian reconquest.Mudéjar was also the name of decorations that were heavily influenced by Islamic art created during this period, but were mostly made by Christian artisans.
The Mudéjar style gives traditional decorative elements to Romanesque, Gothic and Renaissance buildings commissioned by the Spanish and Portuguese monarchs in the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries.
Examples included horseshoe and leaf arches, muqarnas vaults, afiz, refractory bricks, glazed ceramic tiles, and decorative stucco artwork.They were well liked because they were made to live in the bright Iberian sunshine.
Jewelery produced during this period has many breathtaking patterns such as leaf and ivy scrolls and lace.
Manueline
Beginning in the 16th century, Manueline decoration was widespread throughout Portugal.It was an elaborate, excessive and highly ornate mixed architectural style, named after King Manuel I (1-1495).Many of these buildings were inspired by East Indian temples and Portuguese navigators brought their discoveries.
The façade of columns, windows and arcades was incredibly swirling to the maximum.
Plateresco
The "Goldsmith's Technique" Plateresco was a highly decorative style that influenced Iberian and Spanish artistry.It features floral designs, chandeliers, mythical creatures and festoons, and Gothic spatial arrangements.The most notable remains of Plateresco architecture are in Salamanca, Spain.
They were carefully decorated as if they were the work of goldsmiths rather than architects.
Similarly, jewelry has become very glamorous.
What about Spanish and Portuguese jewelry styles?
Needless to say, Portugal and Spain were among the world's greatest international powers during the Renaissance.
Their advanced trade gave them access to the world's richest gemstone mines, and a gold rush also occurred in Portugal during this period, greatly influencing the methods and mass production of jewelry.
However, due to the great earthquake and tsunami of 1755, Portuguese jewelery is very difficult to find prior to that time.But just looking at the artwork by the monarchy, one can predict what Portuguese jewelery would have been like by its extravagance and excess.
In Portugal, monarchs understood that jewelery was essential to their economic success.So there was a special distribution channel reserved only for goldsmiths and jewelers.There, jewelers crafted pieces that were purchased by buyers from special dealers commissioned by the monarch, making Portugal highly lucrative in the jewelery trade.
filigree
It's no secret that filigree is a technique that dates back thousands of years, but the Portuguese took it and made it completely their own.The characteristic filigree is a symbol of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Portuguese city of Viana do Castelo.Moreover, it was also a symbol of honesty and generosity.
We have introduced some of the history and decorative culture of Iberia.Spanish jewelery has thus undergone many processes of cultural fusion and evolved like the still unfinished Sagrada Familia.There is a unique style with a strong personality that combines geopolitical, racial and religious elements.For a long time, the monarchy lasted and prospered from the gemstone mines discovered by those who actively crossed the seas to colonize the continent.They succeeded by making elaborate and luxurious jewelery and selling them to monarchs and nobles of other countries.
the spanish collectionClick here for the guidelines.