Castellani & Giuliano: The Judith H. Siegel Collection

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Lot 24
  • 24

Archaeological-revival gold and micromosaic 'psyche' brooch, Castellani, circa 1870

Estimate
10,000 - 15,000 USD
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Description

  • Castellani
Decorated with a micromosaic of a butterfly in earth tones against a cream ground, the Greek characters for 'Psyche' below, within a gold frame flanked by tied batons, the reverse with Greek characters for 'Eros', signed with interlaced C's. 

Provenance

Massimiliana Saraceni, granddaughter of Alfredo Castellani. 

Literature

Geoffrey C. Munn, The Triumph of Love, Jewelry 1530-1930, p. 74. 

Catalogue Note

The butterfly is the Greek symbol for the soul and its personification, Psyche. Eros is the god of love. The personification of Psyche as a beautiful princess visited at night by her lover Eros is a Hellenistic invention and was first told by Apuleius in The Golden Ass. Psyche, forbidden to look at her lover, cannot resist temptation and one night lights a lamp and holds it over his face. The god is waked by a drop of scalding oil and disappears. Psyche is submitted to a series of terrible ordeals until Zeus takes pity on the lovers, confers immortality to Psyche and reunites them in marriage. At times this story has been interpreted as an allegory of the soul's journey through life as a mystic union with the divine after sufferance and death.