Pendant with a Youth Playing a Lyre and Riding an Elephant

Unknown

probably second half 19th century · Enameled gold set with diamonds and rubies and with pendant pearls · European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

The iconography of this jewel is apparently the creation of the designer. It may perhaps have resulted from combining a figure of Apollo or Orpheus, the two most widely represented harp players from classical mythology, with the small gold elephant worn by recipients of the Danish Order of the Elephant. The scrolled backplate of the pendant and some rather perfunctory floral ornament are cast in a single piece from a three-dimensional model. Visible on the back are the clumsy attempts to disguise the joints of the setting of the four large diamonds. Two bent fold pins secure the elephant. [Clare Vincent, The Jack and Belle Linsky Collection in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1984, p. 202, no. 123]

Artist

Unknown

Date

probably second half 19th century

Medium

Enameled gold set with diamonds and rubies and with pendant pearls

Culture

European

Department

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Credit line

The Jack and Belle Linsky Collection, 1982