Jewellery-making in Byzantium

Byzantine art is charecterized by the same love of luxury and precious materials as that of ancient times. Gold, silver, precious stones and enmel were a 11 used for making opulent objects and typical of the metalworking of this era is the jewellery. One of the distinctive traits of Byzantine jewerllery is the lavish use of precious stones Pearls from the Persian Gulf, emeralds from Egypt and Indian, sapphires from Ceylon were brought to the Empire to embelish valuable objects. Another method of decoration which is of oriental origin and was frequently used by Byzantine jewellers is niello. Throgh niello was known in the Mycenaean period it was subsequently forgotten, to reappear on Roman objects. The decoartive effect is based on the constrast created between the colour of the ground metal and the dark motifs. It can be applied to gold, silver and bronze.

Neohellenic jewellery-making

From the late seventeenth century enslaved Hellenism began to organized itself, to develop an economy and to turn towards its roots. This renaissance in the flourishing of folk art, an art which is the natural heir to that of Byzatinum. Jewerly was made in permanent workshops. Renowned centres were Stemnistsa, Lamia, Yannina and, above all, two large villages in Pindos, Syrrako and Kalarrytes. On account of the special conditions prevailing in Greece at this time it is essential to distinguish between the jewellery of the Greek mainland and that of the Greek island.The islands, both in the Ionian and the Aegean Sea, experienced a long period of Frankish occupations and so their jewerlley does not constitute genuine examplesof Greek folk art but rather copies western models. Island jewellery was frequently made of an alloy of gold, while its decoration was executed in a 11 the known methods (filigree, granulation etc.), very often enriched with gemstones, pearls and enamel. In mainland Greece however, whichwas under the Ottoman yoke, precious matals were only produced for use by the state and the folk jewellery was made of humbler metals. The community of Mademochoria that exploited that exploited the silver mines of the region, paying an annual tax in pure silver to the Sublime Porte, constituted an expection. The raw materials were usually obtained through illicit mining or the recycling of coins, older jewellery and other precious objects. Thse were melted down and then a complex process was followed in which the various ingredients, that is the gold, silver, copper, etc., were separated out (lagarisma)Neohellenic jewellery was usually made from an alloy of silver which only rarely had a high silver content(lagara), and usually low-grade (ayari).Another metal used in jewellery-making was copper. Very often the folk jewellery was excuted in all the familiar techniques. Repouses decoration occurs mainly on belt buckles. Various linking plaques with relief decorations and small bucklets were made by casting in metal moulds.