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Jewelry

The Body Transformed
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( 15 ratings, 3 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Jewelry offers a cross-cultural exploration of jewellery over 5,000 years, examining not only the objects but also the bodies they decorated. The book outlines six modes of body ornamentation—Deconstructed, Divine, Regal, Idealised, Alluring, and Resplendent—and showcases over 200 examples of jewellery from antiquity to present day. Featuring pieces from Pre-Columbian Peru to designs by Yves Saint-Laurent, it uncovers the social, political, and aesthetic roles jewellery has played globally. Illustrated with paintings and sculptures, this volume provides insights into the wearers, designers, artisans, and cultures behind these intimate art forms.
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Format: Hardback
$9599
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

Ideal for readers interested in arts, culture, history, and jewellery design, as well as those fascinated by the interplay between personal adornment and cultural expression.

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Catalog of an exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from November 12, 2018-February 24, 2019.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

Jewelry offers a cross-cultural examination spanning 5,000 years, exploring not only the objects themselves but also the bodies they decorated. As an art form, jewelry is defined primarily through its connection to and interaction with the body—extending it, amplifying it, accentuating it, distorting it, concealing it, or transforming it. But how is the meaning of jewelry bound to the body that wears it?

Establishing six different modes of ornamenting the body—Deconstructed, Divine, Regal, Idealized, Alluring, and Resplendent—this artfully designed book illustrates how these various definitions of the body give meaning to the jewelry that adorns it. More than 200 examples of exceptional jewelry and ornaments, created across the globe from antiquity to the present, are shown alongside paintings and sculptures of bejewelled bodies to demonstrate the social, political, and aesthetic role of jewelry.

From earflares of warrior heroes in Pre-Columbian Peru to designs by Yves Saint-Laurent, these precious and most intimate works of art provide insight not only about the wearer but also into the designers, artisans, and cultures that produced them.

Published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art / Distributed by Yale University Press

Exhibition Schedule:

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
(11/12/18–02/24/19)

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

"The lushly illustrated exhibition catalogue includes some fine, informative essays by Met curators, among them Beth Carver Wees on the history of parures and John Guy on the relationship between representations of Hindu gods and the jewels that adorn them. . . .that the volume exists at all is worthy of praise." — Paula Weideger, Introspective Magazine

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781588396501

Publisher: Metropolitan Museum of Art

Format: Hardback

Date Published: 20 November 2018

Country: United States

Imprint: Metropolitan Museum of Art

Illustration: 280 color illus.

Contributors:

  • Edited by Melanie Holcomb
  • Contributions by Kim Benzel
  • Contributions by Soyoung Lee
  • Contributions by Diana Craig Patch
  • Contributions by Joanne Pillsbury
  • Contributions by Beth Carver Wees

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Width: 229.0mm

Height: 254.0mm

Weight: 1588g

Pages: 280

About the Author

Melanie Holcomb is curator in the Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters; Kim Benzel is curator in charge in the Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art; Soyoung Lee is curator in the Department of Asian Art; Diana Craig Patch is Lila Acheson Wallace Curator in Charge in the Department of Egyptian Art; Joanne Pillsbury is Andrall E. Pearson Curator in the Department of Arts of Africa; and Beth Carver Wees is Ruth Bigelow Wriston Curator of American Decorative Arts in the American Wing, all at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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