Large pendant brooch with the shell cameo of a bacchante, around 1870

Enivrez-Vous - Intoxicate yourself, for one must always be drunk, whether on wine, poetry or virtue. These are the famous words of Baudelaire, published posthumously in 1869 in the poetry collection Le Spleen de Paris. They were to become the watchwords for a whole generation of writers of the decadence movement. Around the same time that the poem was published, the present jewel was made. It shows a Bacchante or Maenad, a follower of the wine god Bacchus or Dionysus. She is recognizable by the attributes surrounding her, the ram's head on her chest and the vine leaves in her hair. The name Maenad is derived from "mania", frenzy, because wild revelry and orgies were celebrated in the god's entourage. Thus, Bacchus was also considered the god of intoxication. Represented in profile, the Bacchante turns her face to the right. Her garment, an antique peblos with a ram's head as a brooch, is lovingly worked out. Particularly beautiful here is also the clear separation between the tinted white of the portrait and the soft, darker ground of the shell. A simple setting of rose gold makes the cameo wearable as a brooch and pendant. As a classic piece of jewellery, it was also wearable in the 19th century, transporting an interest in the culture of antiquity and an accompanying higher education, despite its subversive motif.

Estimate:£749.42

View all items fromHofer AntikschmuckorJewellery & Gems