Greek Jewellery
Ilias Lalaounis Jewelry Museum
| In the History of Greek An, collections present the art of the Cycladic civilisation until the architecture of the Byzantine period. The artist isolated elements from the an, religious symbols and even poetry verses of Homer's Iliad, to create jewels that have a story to tell. The minoan double axe, motifs of the vases from the Geometric period and the arch of Byzantine architecture show the eclectic character of the artist's study. The artist also chooses iconographical themes to create jewels with new forms. The "Owls and Anthemia" collection 1972, show how the architectural decorative motif of the greek flower if inverted creates an abstract form of an owl. The glorious wreath, which decorated male winners of the ancient Olympic Games, in the collection "For Every Woman's Victory" 1984, is reformed to decorate the female winners of the modern Olympic Games. Significant has been the endeavour of the modern goldsmith to reconstruct classical and hellenistic prototypes using ancient tools and techniques to create handmade jewels. The "Classical" and "Hellenistic" Collections, 1957, signify the first enterprise of a greek jeweler to shift from traditional greek silver-goldsmith and western-European stone setting techniques. | |
| Fig 3 From the section on Nature, "Carlina-Utzka" in 22k gold from the Wild Flowers Collection, 1972. |
| Influences in art from one continent to another are inevitable. However, sometimes one finds similar designs over the boarders knowing that the possibility oI communication would have been impossible. Ilias Lalaounis has traced common designs for inspiration from 12 different
civilisations that have common denominator forms from greek an. Curvilinear and interlace designs, symmetrical step motifs, the meander, the sun, animal heads, and other have been researched from the art of civilisations found in the European, American and the Asian continent. The success of these collections resulted in the bloom of greek goldsmithery abroad. Over seven collections have been inspired by nature and the animal kingdom. Collections such as "Pastorale", "Wild Flowers" and "Microcosm" show the need of men to return to nature in a time when technology controls peoples lives. Moreover, trying to balance the destruction of nature with the technological advances and scientific inventions, the artist creates a series of collections that are included in the Technology-Biology section. The fascination of the artist becomes tangible with jewels that try to show motion in space, the phenomenon of rein drops caused by gravity or even the fertilisation of the female ovary by the male sperm cell. Together with the hammer and the saw, the telescope and the microscope become the tools of the artist to realise the rules of physics. |
| Fig 4 From the History of Greek Art, "Necklace and Brooch in 18k gold inspired by the meander design found on a vase from the Geometric period", from the NeoGeometric Collection, 1976. |