Masriera Rosés

modernist jewelry

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NOUVEAU JEWELRY

René Lalique 1902 Fermall, or, vidre, aiguamarines i diamants
René Lalique

The Expo 1888 and industrial expansion at the time gave a major boost to Barcelona. Barcelona is designed as a modern and restless where the bourgeoisie and the working class had an important role. This drive reached all aspects of the artistic moment, architecture, painting, sculpture, music, literature, poetry, Jewelry…

Jewellery and silverware went through a period of transformation, which had traditionally been a trade craftsman became an artistic profession, the pieces have be innovative and becomes small works of art, increasingly taking center stage in social events, in everyday life, the furnishings and decoration of houses.

The neoclassical ornamentation of Elizabethan given way to joy flexible and undulating forms of the modernist gem, which in turn incorporates a new agenda, on the female figure i la natura, lily, lilies, roses, fish, dragons and all kinds of insects joined in one piece are treated more streamlined. The discovery of Japanese art had an impact on these asymmetric lines stylisations. This gem was renovated closer to female fashion dress, in which predominated embroidery and tulle, jewelry suit the new trends in clothing and even jewelry can be found in the same similarities with embroidery or the folds of the clothes that were worn at this time.

The recent discovery of diamond mines in South Africa, had a clear impact on the pieces. Bit by bit, the cap 1869 Diamonds were introduced in the Paris market, this caused a change in the technical development and artistic jewelry.

The sum of these factors influence a very important jewelry, not only in the curriculum but also in technical, the cisellat, engraving and enamel, for the first time be held in Barcelona translucent enamels, becomes fashionable and becomes known as enamels Barcelona. Glazes resumed the role they had in the Catalan silverware XIV,XV i XVI, were responsible fill color the pieces with different stones used.

In Barcelona first appeared enamels on metal workshops, from the house Geneva Millenet, was the time small family workshops were industrialized. Highlights figure Masriera had learned the craft of enameller Geneva and Paris, learned from René Lalique and Fabergé, leader of the modernist silversmith in France. Back in Barcelona Masriera, at that time their property was going through a crisis, decided to merge all the pieces that had, and thanks to the knowledge acquired on the enamel painted, conducted the realization of jewelry inspired by the work of Lalique, which they have a high profile and wide acceptance by the public and even their own jewelers imitated the city, these pieces came later to the rest of Spain and South America.

Masriera was president of the Academy of Sciences and Arts, founder and director of the fortnightly magazine ·Style, dedicated to the decorative arts of which através 1906 recognized the beauty of handwork. He was vice president of the Artistic Circle of St. Luke. El 1913 pronounced like an academic conference entitled The fall of Modernism announcing the arrival of Noucentisme.

M. Àngels Canut

Art historian

Text of 2004