Fondation Bemberg, Toulouse, 4th April–27th July 

To mark the 30th anniversary of its opening in the Hôtel d’Assézat, Toulouse, the Fondation Bemberg is celebrating with a dazzling exhibition dedicated to Renaissance jewellery – the first on the subject since Princely Magnificence: Court Jewels of the Renaissance, 1500–1630 at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (V&A), in 1980–81.[1] Befitting its setting in a sixteenth-century city palace built for a wealthy woad merchant, the display glitters with precious materials and impresses with the artistry of works in a range of media. Included are over one hundred French and international loans, complementing four striking Renaissance portraits from the Bemberg’s own holdings. Founded in 1993 by Georges Bemberg (1915–2011), the scion of a German-Argentinian banking family, the foundation now presents his eclectic, discreetly assembled collection in tastefully refurbished galleries following a 2024 reopening. 

The exhibition rewards close looking, inviting engagement with objects of intimate scale and encouraging reflection on how they were once worn, handled and cherished. Principally curated by Julie Rohou of the Musée national de la Renaissance, château d’Écouen, in collaboration with Ana Debenedetti, the Bemberg’s director, the show is the result of a fruitful institutional partnership. One of its key strengths lies in contextualising goldsmiths’ art by including a rich array of prints, drawings, armour and paintings, which highlight the central role of jewellery design in Early Modern visual and material culture. Especially effective is the inclusion of portraits, thus reconnecting the jewellery on display with the historical figures who crafted, owned or adorned themselves with such pieces. A comprehensive catalogue in French accompanies the show, with essays by leading scholars in historic jewellery, including Rohou, as well as detailed catalogue entries.[2] 

The exhibition spans two floors and unfolds across five main sections that largely follow the structure of the accompanying catalogue. Within these, smaller groupings explore specific themes in greater depth and deftly respond to the challenge of displaying intimate scale jewels together with larger works, which help to contextualise their smaller companions. 

The first section centres on the Renaissance goldsmith’s workshop as a space of collaborative making and artisanal skill. On entering, visitors are transported into the industrious bustle of such a workshop. A striking, wallsized reproduction of an engraving by Étienne Delaune, also exhibited in the original (1576; Musée du Louvre, Paris; cat. no.2), sets the tone and offers a vivid evocation of the craft’s tools and workflows. Ten lead models (V&A; no.3) materially evoke these processes and reveal how, by casting, goldsmiths could adapt ready-made forms for bespoke commissions. Drawings, prints and carved woodwork further emphasise the circulation of standardised ornamental motifs across a range of media. A fragmented ceramic cup from Bernard Palissy’s workshop (no.17; Fig.8), excavated from Catherine de’ Medici’s lost grotto at the palais des Tuileries, Paris, exemplifies the competitive edge of this exchange: its residual blue glaze and jewel-like mouldings mimicked carved lapis lazuli and emeralds with artful bravura. Rohou’s two catalogue essays on the self-fashioning of goldsmiths and the use of workshop models probe the themes of this display in greater depth. 

The next section, ‘The Renaissance of Finery’, opens with a portrait of a fashionable noblewoman wearing a cameo suspended from a pearl necklace (1530–40; Städel Museum, Frankfurt; no.18). It is juxtaposed with a hat badge (1530–40; Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna; no.20) that shows the bust of a Black man carved in onyx. This pairing marks the beginning of the exhibition proper and reflects the period’s humanist engagement with Classical Antiquity. Jewellery here becomes a lens through which to examine broader shifts in Early Modern visual and material culture: from the proliferation of ornament and its stylistic metamorphoses to the emergence of the individual as a subject of artistic expression. One of the highlights of this section is a spectacular baroque pearl pendant in the form of a strutting rooster (no.41; Fig.7), which is juxtaposed with a horn-blowing triton (1570–90; private collection; no.42), their opaline bodies cleverly mimicking plumage and breastplate. These exuberant works capture the Renaissance jeweller’s penchant for theatricality and playfulness. Another display explores the fascination with Islamic knot-work and its European adaptations, featuring a magnificently etched iron coffer (1575–1600; château d’Écouen; no.36), possibly created in Southern Germany. 

‘Jewellery and Power’ explores adornment as a currency of authority and allegiance at sixteenth-century European courts. This idea is anchored by portraits of French and Habsburg rulers, including François Clouet’s Charles IX (no.49; Fig.9) and a newly restored likeness of Anna of Austria (1575–80; no.50), both from the Bemberg’s holdings. In Clouet’s painting, the young king’s gold-trimmed black velvet doublet and jewelled collar with a pendant of the Order of Saint Michael reinforce a carefully constructed image of regal maturity, compensating for his youth and the political fragility of his turbulent reign. A letter from his mother, Catherine de’ Medici, to her court jeweller François Dujardin concerning the design of gemstudded buttons (1571; Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris; no.54) offers a welcome archival insight into royal gifting culture. The ceremonial function of precious finery is also reflected in a spectacular parade armour from the Milanese workshop of the Negroli family (1540–45; Musée de l’Armée, Paris; no.56), adorned with an embossed collar of the Order of St Michael. Chivalric virtue and its sartorial manifestations carry over into a pairing of portraits from the Louvre in the lower galleries: Jan van Wassenaer (1555/56; no.58), probably copied from a prototype created in 1516–23, and an unknown French courtier (1570–75; no.57). Both wear regalia of knightly orders, demonstrating the enduring political value of such insignia across generations. 

According to Rohou, ‘jewellery was something of a mirror of its owner [. . .] The ornaments also accompany different moments in life and illustrate the concerns, customs and beliefs of their owners’ (p.154). Much of the lower ground floor explores these emotional and personal connections. Devotional objects, memento mori, betrothal gifts and protective amulets offer glimpses into Early Modern life. These precious possessions are shown alongside paintings and prints that contextualise their meaning as treasured reminders of hope, devotion and love. The section also highlights the Renaissance fascination with emblems, showing pieces with complex designs and recurring motifs. Two displays, for which Rohou traced related jewels across European collections, allow visitors to compare kindred cupid pendants (nos.67–72) and other love tokens. This juxtaposition reveals the appeal of fashionable, replicable designs and also examines later alterations, shaped by nineteenthcentury historicism. The final section addresses this revival more directly, pairing Renaissance originals with exquisite historicist ‘imitations’ and their designs. 

This is a dense, multi-faceted exhibition – a kaleidoscopic tour de force that reveals just how many threads come together in the study of Renaissance jewellery. The art of finery becomes a means of negotiating, en miniature, key aspects of the Renaissance – both as a historical period and as a historiographical construct. The curatorial approach largely follows traditional modes of contextualisation, placing objects in dialogue with typological peers and visual analogues. Specialists may at times crave deeper engagement with themes that subtly emerge at the edges of the displays, such as the interconnected cultural histories of Renaissance ornament and non- Western craft traditions and the complex international trade networks that brought together precious materials and artisanal expertise in the creation of these jewels. That said, the catalogue offers valuable elaboration as well as detailed notes on provenance. And if the strongest critique is the fact that the exhibition leaves visitors curious for more, that is in itself a mark of success.

[1] Reviewed by Gertrud Seidmann in this Magazine, 122 (1980), p.851. 

[2] Catalogue: D’or et d’éclat: Le bijou à la Renaissance. Edited by Julie Rohou. 240 pp. incl. 170 col. ills. (Fondation Bemberg, Toulouse, and In Fine éditions d’art, Paris, 2025), €45. ISBN 978–2–38203–215–2.