Afro Basaldella (Italian, 1912–1976), designer, Mario Masenza (Italian, 1913–1985), maker, Necklace with Three Pendants, late 1940s–early 1950s, gold, sapphires, rubies, diamonds

Audio Description

This brooch was designed around 1950 by Italian Afro Basaldella, who lived from 1912-1976. It was made in Mario Masenza’s workshop, who was also Italian and lived from 1913-1985.

A diminutive brooch, this piece of jewelry is made of yellow gold with a matte finish. It is a bust with a sculpted leprechaun-like face with hair that sticks up off the head made of faceted emeralds, amethysts, tourmalines, and rhodolite garnets in green, teal, lilac, and red. The eyes on the face are faceted diamonds. Each ear lobe is pierced with a gold ring. The neck of the figure has three raised lines that create concentric semi-circles around the neck. The upper torso has a semi-circle of four faceted diamonds, and protruding from the bottom are a faceted purple tourmaline, a red ruby, and a pink amethyst.

Label Copy

This brooch was designed around 1950 by Italian Afro Basaldella who lived from 1912-1976. It was made in Mario Masenza’s workshop, who was also Italian and lived from 1913-1985.

The almost comical, leprechaun-like face of this small brooch has a sculptor’s touch in its gold surface. It is characteristic of the often rough-looking surfaces Afro created in his expressionistic paintings in the 1950s. This tactile element evokes the work of jewelers of the 1960s and ‘70s. However, this diminutive brooch remains rather demure, almost charming, in great contrast to the larger scale and seemingly rough work created by jewelers in the following decades. In addition, Afro has added riotously colored, faceted precious and semi-precious stones, mimicking his own highly chromatic paintings of the period. Such a cacophony of color was generally an unusual choice for the avant-garde jewelers of the 1960s and ‘70s.

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