Gorgeous Beasts: Animal Kingdom-Inspired Jewelry
We have been trying to depict the beauty of the natural environment in our art and jewelry for thousands of years, starting with the ancient gold jewelry and continuing with the contemporary pieces. Artists have looked to animals for inspiration, and they have discovered materials that could hold the key to their creation in exquisite stones and rare metals. Our passion with wild animals has shown itself in tales and dreams, where they have appeared as fables and fantasies, savage adversaries and devoted partners, gods and devils. Our understanding of our own natures is shaped by these projections, which allude to our ancestry and the transition from nature to culture.
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The natural tendency to imbue animals with symbolic meaning stems from our consciousness of the human condition, which unites art and civilizations across time. Animal representations served as projections of allegories, artistic muses, or creation symbols, supporting popular mythology or beliefs. With wild creatures acting as go-betweens, these animal photos help us comprehend the interactions between humans and the natural world.
Butterflies
Butterfly and beetle beauty and mystique make them little treasures of the natural world. We get fascinated by this kind of reinvention just by considering the prospect of transformation. However, the delicate and ethereal flutter of its iridescent wings serves as a reminder of its transient nature. The Greek term for butterfly, psyche, refers to a creature that is connected to the soul. The butterfly’s ascension from the chrysalis, or metamorphosis, is a metaphor for the soul’s separation from the body. The fleeting light-catching quality of gemstones implies the same ephemerality. The extended metaphor of the honeybee to man and mortality is equally reminiscent of it.
Aegean
The grandeur of a raptor in flight, the beauty of a peacock, or the voice of a songbird all remain in our minds and become symbols of freedom, love, and hope. Although there have always been bird images in jewelry, their renown grew in the 19th century as ornithology and birdwatching became more prominent in North America and Europe. Parisian jewelers adopted the theme of soaring birds during World War II, viewing it as a symbol of resistance against the grimmer global realities of warfare. They gave rise to aspirations for enduring peace following the war. During prosperous times, we would be enthralled by the magnificent feathers of parrots, kingfishers, or peacocks, and we may even incorporate some of that grandeur into our jewelry. The peacock, a popular motif in jewelry due to its brilliant colors and symbolic meaning of love and the approach of spring, is the mount of the Hindu deity of battle, Lord Karthikeya.
Legendary Animals
The creation mystery of minerals, rocks, and fossils all hints at earlier times that span the length of geologic time. Ancient societies have summoned mythological beings throughout history to help them understand this unfathomable mystery and speculate about what could have been before us. Legendary animal representations, such as those of the three-headed dragon Zmei or the immortal bird goddess Garuda, are projections of allegories, artistic inspirations, or emblems of creation that serve to reinforce popular mythology or folklore.
Marine Life
The seas might stand in for the unfathomable, enigmatic, and life-giving depths of our unconscious minds in our dreams. “Ideas are like fish,” American director David Lynch once said. You can stay in the shallow water if you wish to capture little fish. But you have to dig deeper if you want to capture the big fish. The fish are stronger and purer down below. They are enormous and ethereal. Additionally, they are stunning.
In many cultures, fish and other aquatic animals—like seahorses and jellyfish—have come to symbolize a variety of abstract ideas, including rebirth, purification, faith, plenty, harmony, and immortality. Seashells and other marine themes are only a few examples of how Rene Boivin’s creations display their passion with the natural world. Sea turtles, often known as tortoises, are a happy and carefree emblem of longevity. Many jewelry designers have chosen to use seashells and starfish because they conjure images of carefree beach days and long summers.
One of the richest and most culturally varied types of iconography is probably snake motifs. We assume that poisonous snakes, rising from the depths of the earth’s darkness, must be the keepers of the underworld, existing in that transitional state between life and death. Snakes have been revered for a very long time as emblems of fertility, sexual desire, longevity, healing, knowledge, nobility, and wealth, dating back to the Javanese empire and the kingdom of Cleopatra. A sleek symbol of eternal love, the engagement ring fashioned like a snake and set with Queen Victoria’s birthstone was given to her by Prince Albert in 1839. The style quickly became popular throughout England and Europe.
Since 1913, exotic large cats—particularly the panther—have been associated with Cartier thanks to the brand’s effervescent creative director and supreme tastemaker, Jeanne Toussaint. Perhaps representing the exact ideal of feminine power and its perils, the exotic jungle cat, with its elegant and enigmatic appearance, grabbed the minds of Parisians during the Jazz Age. On the other hand, because of the lion’s majestic and strong physique, images of the animal have long been associated with the “king of beasts.”
