A Florentine Necklace (or Two)

Sebastiano Mainardi (1466-1513), "Portrait of a Woman",
Staatliche Museen, Berlin, Germany. Tempera on Wood, 1490

This portrait illustrates the generally simple appearance of most jewelry one finds in portraits of this era.

To duplicate this necklace, I used a very simple two-thread technique. I used white size 1 silk-like thread and real glass beads in clear and amber. The clear beads are called "faceted double cones", in 16mm size. The amber beads are 8mm glass faceted rounds. The necklace in the original painting looks quite clunky, hence the larger bead sizes. I used a simple bronze S-clasp in the back, though it can't be seen in this photo, since I can't see any closures anyway in the original.

Though it's clear that the lady in the Mainardi painting has a pearl-and-amber-colored pendant on this necklace, I couldn't hazard a guess about what it might look like, so left it off for now. It may be as simple as two amber beads with a pearl bottom bead.

Overall, this was an easy necklace to make. It's begging for restringing, maybe making it snugger around my throat and adding some sort of pendant.

Another Necklace Based on that Design

Garnets, pearls, and 14k gold 3mm rondelles

This necklace uses faceted garnet double cones, 4mm white glass pearls, and 3mm 14k gold rondelles (narrow roundish beads). It is strung on black thread with standard knot-cover clamshell endcaps and a bronze-finish hook clasp. Between each pair of 2 garnets is a rondelle, a pearl, and another rondelle. It is strung on two threads.

All materials were purchased from Fire Mountain Gems, a splendid resource for jewelry types. The necklace in total cost about $50, the bulk of it for the garnet beads.

Click here for more information about Renaissance jewelry.

This page last updated: July 10, 2009

All text copyright Vangelista di Antonio Dellaluna, except where otherwise noted. All portraits are understood to be copyright- free and are presented as research aids only.