Probably Netherlandish, 19th century, in Renaissance style

This present pendant, taking the form of a "triton d'écailles vêtus, avecques leurs cornus tortus"¹ (a scale‑clad triton, with their curling ornucopaie) was a motif favored by Renaissance jewelry makers.² To create such fantastical beings, artisans frequently incorporated large baroque pearls whose irregular shapes and lustrous surfaces, as seen here, appealed to the Renaissance and Mannerist taste.³ Sea imagery held particular fascination for Netherlandish artists, and scholars have suggested that the Spanish occupation of the Low Countries introduced exotic visual material from the New World, including depictions of extraordinary marine creatures, into the repertoire of local goldsmiths.⁴ A painting of what is believed to be of a young member of Habsburg family, attributed to Frans Pourbus the Younger and dated to circa 1580-90 shows a young woman wearing a particularly fine example of pendant in the form of a mermaid.⁵

A pendant of a triton, likewise employing a baroque pearl for its body, is preserved in the Pitti Palace (accession number: Gemme 1921, no. 2495) and is attributed to a Flemish goldsmith working in the late 16th century.⁶

¹Y. Hackenbroch, Renaissance Jewellery, London 1979, p. 239.

²https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/207254.

³Y. Hackenbroch, Renaissance Jewellery, London 1979, p. 243.

⁴Ibid., pp. 238 - 239.

⁵Ibid., p. 241.

⁶https://www.uffizi.it/en/artworks/pendant-triton.