Moretto Brooch Nardi Style

Brooch depicting a Moor's head, called Moretto, in 18k gold (750 hallmark on the body), 14k gold (hooks) and chiseled blackened silver, removable earrings, set with sapphires, turquoises and tinted green chalcedony, Venetian work in the taste of Nardi (unsigned brooch) Gross weight: 20.64 g Dimensions: 5.5 cm high and 3 cm at the widest point Details: 5 turquoise cabochons, 1 tinted chalcedony cabochon, 31 sapphires cut from 1mm to 3 mm Condition: very good general condition, some wear Hallmarks: 750 on the body for 18k gold + shell on the pin for 14k gold + swan and shell for 14k gold on the hooks of the pins. ref.377 The Moretto: A jewel-homage to the city of Venice This is the emblematic jewel of the city of Venice: most often worn as a brooch, it represents a prince with a black face, in ebony or blackened silver, dressed a robe and a turban richly adorned with precious stones. It refers to Shakespeare's Othello in his play, to the mage king Balthazar who offers gold to the Saviour. Relaunched in the 1940s by Nardi, the jeweler in Saint Mark's Square (established in 1920), it symbolizes the importance of the exchanges carried out mainly in the 18th century between East and West on this island, a veritable crossroads of civilizations. . Alberto Nardi specifies that this is in no way a pejorative representation, tinged with racism, the figure of the black slave worn by whites, as has been pointed out: on the contrary, it is a prince adorned wealth, it is the symbolic image of the Oriental, of the foreigner in all his splendour, a foreigner who fascinates, who conveys the image of a mysterious Orient, land of a thousand and one nights.