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The Sacrifice of Isaac

Designer Probably after a design by Reinhold Vasters German
probably second half 19th century
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 542
The size and shape of this pendant suggests that its model was not a Renaissance jewel, but perhaps instead an ornamental cartouche from the rim of a Mannerist silver basin, a plaquette of gold, silver, or rock crystal from a jewel casket, or a book cover. The ornament on the frame and the back of the pendant is a mixture of decorative motifs that were in vogue at several different periods during the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. The central pattern on the back, ultimately derived from sixteenth-century Moresque ornament, is comparable to one of Reinhold Vasters’s designs for a pendant in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, but the identity of the maker of this pendant remains uncertain.

[Clare Vincent, The Jack and Belle Linsky Collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1984, p. 199, no. 119]

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: The Sacrifice of Isaac
  • Designer: Probably after a design by Reinhold Vasters (German, Erkelenz 1827–1909 Aachen)
  • Date: probably second half 19th century
  • Culture: probably French or German
  • Medium: Enameled gold set with emeralds, rubies, and pearls and with pendant pearls
  • Dimensions: Height: 7 1/8 in. (18.1 cm)
  • Classifications: Jewelry, Metalwork-Gold and Platinum
  • Credit Line: The Jack and Belle Linsky Collection, 1982
  • Object Number: 1982.60.384
  • Curatorial Department: European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

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Tabernacle House Altar with the Adoration of the Shepherds, the Adoration of the Magi, and the Annunciation., Reinhold Vasters (frame) German, Ebony-veneered soft wood, silver gilt, rock crystal, agate, and reverse painted and gilded glass.
Tabernacle House Altar with the Adoration of the Shepherds, the Adoration of the Magi, and the Annunciation.
Reinhold Vasters
Italian
second half 16th century (panels); ca. 1865–90 (frame)
Ceramic Horn, Glazed pottery, French
Ceramic Horn
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Pendant in the form of a gondola, Enameled gold set with diamonds, emeralds, rubies and pearls and with pendant pearls, European
Pendant in the form of a gondola
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Commode, André Charles Boulle French, Walnut veneered with ebony, marquetry of engraved brass and tortoiseshell, gilt-bronze mounts, verd antique marble, French
Commode
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Pendant in the form of a mermaid, Reinhold Vasters German, Baroque pearl with enameled gold mounts set with diamonds and with pendant pearls, German or French
Pendant in the form of a mermaid
Designer Probably based on a design by Reinhold Vasters
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