René Lalique
Paris, ca 1900
Gold, diamonds, enamel, baroque pearl
9,0 x 6,4 cm
Inv.-Nr. 88/321
Given by the Allianz Versicherungsgesellschaft, Munich, 1988
Gallery 55
The pansy motif recurs frequently in art-nouveau jewellery. The French name for this little flower, 'pensée', the origin of the English word pansy, lends it the symbolic meanings of thought and associated memory. René Lalique, the leading jewellery artist of his day, has represented the pansy at the heart of this fin-de-siècle pendant as a fading bloom with limply curled and notched edges. At the same time, however, he has also transmuted the overarching design into a precious jewel suffused with a lucid radiance.