After the shadows of ‘The Black Death’ had passed over medieval Europe a new culture rose from the ashes, a culture that would grow into the political, philosophical and artistic roots of modern Europe: The Renaissance. Literally meaning ‘Rebirth’, the ‘Renaissance’ signaled the demise of the medieval epoch. Lasting from the late 14th to the 16th Century, its birthplace was amongst the scholars, painters and jewelers of Italy who had rediscovered lost ‘Pearls of Wisdom’ in the classical cultures of ancient Greece and Rome. Inspired by Plato, Aristotle and Socrates, artists such as Da Vinci, Raphael and Michelangelo covered the surface of Italy

The fusion of Boticelli’s jewelry training and brushwork can be clearly seen in his famous painting ‘The Birth of Venus’, which by rights should be titled ‘Venus Goes To Cyprus’, as the painting depicts the Greek myth of her arrival on the Island. However, paintings from the ‘Renaissance’ held many hidden meanings and metaphors open to all interpretations. For most people at the time, ignorant to the legend behind the painting, it appeared as if the giant

During the Renaissance Italy, unlike England and France, was not ruled over by one dominating capital city, but rather a number of regional states: Rome ruled over the Papal States, Venice northeastern Italy, and Florence Siena and Tuscany. Venice and Florence, under the rule of the Medici and merchant classes, experienced a great flowering of culture, which put Venice at the epicenter of trade in Europe for 200 years. Many paintings of this period depict the wives of these rich and powerful merchants steeped in Pearl jewelry and semi-precious gems in attestation to the success of the trade wealth.

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