CMA brings classic elegance, opulence to University Circle
Issue date: 11/21/08 Section: Focus
In the 1961 film Breakfast at Tiffany's, Miss Holly Golightly (as immortalized onscreen by the timeless Audrey Hepburn), declares, "I'm simply crazy about Tiffany's!" The same could be said for Stephen Harrison, curator of Decorative Art and Design at the Cleveland Museum of Art, who has just completed designing the Cleveland Museum of Art's latest exhibition, Artistic Luxury: Fabergé, Tiffany, and Lalique.
Harrison's show was modeled after the 1900 World's Fair in Paris, and displays 326 of the finest and most opulent works from the world's three greatest jewelry and luxury goods designers, Peter Carl Fabergé, Louis Comfort Tiffany, and René Lalique.
This exhibition is one of firsts, Harrison explained. It is the first time that these artists' work is exhibited together since the 1900 World's Fair, and it is the first time that most of the pieces in the show have been displayed publicly, since most belong to private collections such as the sumptuous Fabergé Imperial Blue Serpent Egg that His Highness Prince Albert II of Monaco agreed to loan to the exhibit, or the Fabergé Blue Enamel Cigarette Case borrowed from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain.
Guests coming to see the exhibit are ushered into glittering room after glittering room, each filled with countless, priceless jewels: pearls, diamonds, rubies, platinum, and opal cast a marvelous sparkling glow across each gallery. One case in particular features four mannequins wearing assorted bejeweled Lalique brooches, fur clasps, and elaborate necklaces.
Harrison said he wanted to display these unusual pieces in a manner that women at the turn-of-the-century would have worn them, and so he personally commissioned these mannequins to be based on a 1900 dress form from Paris. Each of these mannequins has an eighteen inch waist - a hallmark of women's turn-of-the-century style.
The most striking quality of the exhibition is the sheer decadence of each individual piece, each one more priceless than the next. One of the most fantastic pieces in the entire show is the Adams Vase, a Tiffany and Co. creation made from 23 pounds of solid gold and dotted with freshwater pearls, amethysts, and tourmalines. Several pieces of jewelry used enormous Siberian amethysts, such as a Fabergé necklace that featured inch- and-a- half amethysts alongside diamonds, white gold, and platinum.
Harrison's show was modeled after the 1900 World's Fair in Paris, and displays 326 of the finest and most opulent works from the world's three greatest jewelry and luxury goods designers, Peter Carl Fabergé, Louis Comfort Tiffany, and René Lalique.
This exhibition is one of firsts, Harrison explained. It is the first time that these artists' work is exhibited together since the 1900 World's Fair, and it is the first time that most of the pieces in the show have been displayed publicly, since most belong to private collections such as the sumptuous Fabergé Imperial Blue Serpent Egg that His Highness Prince Albert II of Monaco agreed to loan to the exhibit, or the Fabergé Blue Enamel Cigarette Case borrowed from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain.
Guests coming to see the exhibit are ushered into glittering room after glittering room, each filled with countless, priceless jewels: pearls, diamonds, rubies, platinum, and opal cast a marvelous sparkling glow across each gallery. One case in particular features four mannequins wearing assorted bejeweled Lalique brooches, fur clasps, and elaborate necklaces.
Harrison said he wanted to display these unusual pieces in a manner that women at the turn-of-the-century would have worn them, and so he personally commissioned these mannequins to be based on a 1900 dress form from Paris. Each of these mannequins has an eighteen inch waist - a hallmark of women's turn-of-the-century style.
The most striking quality of the exhibition is the sheer decadence of each individual piece, each one more priceless than the next. One of the most fantastic pieces in the entire show is the Adams Vase, a Tiffany and Co. creation made from 23 pounds of solid gold and dotted with freshwater pearls, amethysts, and tourmalines. Several pieces of jewelry used enormous Siberian amethysts, such as a Fabergé necklace that featured inch- and-a- half amethysts alongside diamonds, white gold, and platinum.
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