Pendant with Venus and Cupid on a Dolphin

Reinhold Vasters|Alfred André

ca. 1865–90 · enameled gold, rubies, and pearls · Robert Lehman Collection

The white enameled figures of Venus and Cupid are seated upon a fantastic sea creature. The mythological subject of Venus, goddess of love, accompanied by her son Cupid and a sea creature (signifying her birth from the sea and erotic love), dates back to antiquity and was a popular theme during the Renaissance and later periods. A pendant with such amorous connotations could have served as a nuptial gift. A series of sixteenth-century engravings by Adriaen Collaert depicting designs for pendants in the form of sea monsters attests to the popularity of this motif in Renaissance jewelry. Such engravings likely provided models for the highly skilled European goldsmiths of the nineteenth century, such as Reinhold Vasters and Alfred André, who produced Renaissance-revival jewelry, of which the present pendant is a striking example.

Artist

Reinhold Vasters|Alfred André

Date

ca. 1865–90

Medium

enameled gold, rubies, and pearls

Department

Robert Lehman Collection

Credit line

Robert Lehman Collection, 1975