The Adventurine Posts The MET Exhibit Asks: What Is Jewelry?

From The Met’s exhibit ‘The Body Transformed’ The Crown of the Andes and gold Calima headdress ornament, 1st-7th century. Photo courtesy

Books & Exhibitions

The MET Exhibit Asks: What Is Jewelry?

A preview video for ‘The Body Transformed’ lays the groundwork for the exhibit

by Marion Fasel

What is jewelry? Why do we wear it? The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s new jewelry exhibit, The Body Transformed takes a global approach to the subject matter to ponder the answers to these overarching questions of meaning.

It combines 230 jewels, bejeweled objects and art with adorned women and men from various departments in the museum to highlight the similarities through space and time as well as the differences. The astonishing array includes everything from contemporary jewels by Cartier and Tiffany to armbands from the Bronze Age and the legendary 17th century Crown of the Andes.

Melanie Holcomb, the lead curator of the exhibit, reviews the approach in this preview video for The Body Transformed. The exhibit will be on display at the MET Fifth Avenue from November 12, 2018 to February 24, 2019.

The MET video for “Jewelry: The Body Transformed”

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