The power of jewelry at the NY MET

It was not just an exhibition of jewelry of rare beauty, but also a deeper reflection on why and how we adorn ourselves.

"According to the anthropologists we enrich ourselves by wearing jewels because this is a fundamental impulse for us, like language: one of the fundamental tools that makes us human." To speak is Melanie Holcomb of the Department of Medieval Art of the MET, as well as chief curator of "Jewelry: The Body Transformed", a show staged on the themes of jewelry in art, culture and society.

Jewelery, we know, is the oldest art in the world, and "to understand the power of jewelry, it is not enough to consider it a miniature sculpture": "The cultures of the world differ where the jewel should be worn".
230 pieces of great value were exhibited on display, selected from around 8,000 of the Museum's collections to shed light on why a piece of jewelry is worn and what it can get in the body when it is worn.