Jewelry Deserves a Place in Art History

Jewelry Deserves a Place in Art History

In Albrecht Dürer’s idealized, early-16th-century portrait of Charlemagne, the Holy Roman Emperor wears a dazzling crown. The diadem, topped by a cross, was itself very real. But it did not exist until around 962 CE, over a century after Charlemagne’s death. Considered the oldest decorative art, jewelry has such a power to communicate that artists have been willing to bend the truth to exploit its associative capacities — or so argues Beyond Ado…