INDIA. It is an icteresting fact that late-Greek design- appear to have been perpetuated in In dian jewelry. In Ci shmere and the Punjab. the style with gems and enamels. in Tibet that with heavy gold forms, in the region of Orissa and in other northern provinces. the filigree and granu lar work. Indian earrings are the most gorgeous and artistic perpetuation in recent times of the aneient styles. At the same time the ancient de signs of Assyria and Pluenieia are in part per petuated among the modern Arab and Syrian tribes.
THE RENAIssANcE. The Middle Ages in Europe abandoned the earring in the circle of high life. the eustom being perpetuated only by the peasan try. The innunn.rable works of art reprodueing the costume of the period Iwtwa•ni the tenth and luiti.enth centuries show hardly a single earring. The change of taste came during the Renaissance, esp•eially on the approach of the sixteenth cen tury. The Italian jewelers furnished models for nearly all Europe, and the technique reverted to gold-work With frequent use of enameling and precious -acmes. The pendant type was universal l• employed. of many shapes, based on the circle, the cross, the heart. the drop. There was every variety of style, from heavy embussed work in solid metal. often with figures in 111"11 relief. to
the even more favorite form of lace-like 0111'11 work in the rather regnlar geometrie.patterns of Renaissance design. with occasional free use of foliage and flower,. though never su realistic a, in ancient jewelry. Portuguese, Spanish, Ger man. French, and English work of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, while based on Italhul originals. developed national character isties: and this style. sinking into the middle and peasant classes. been perpetuated by them, alongside of even inure antique pattern,: up to the present time. It was among the jewelry of the peasants of modern Tuseany that Castellani found the lost secrets of the Etruscan jewelers. The so-called peasant jewelry of Europe. as first shown by the Paris Exhibition of IsfiT (now in South Kensington Museum). presents the only modern characteristic work comparable to that of modern India in regard to earrings as well as other branches of the art. It is an interest lug fact that in many primitive part, of Europe— the Basque Provinces. Brittany. and southern Italy—the men as well as the women wear earrings, but usually in the form 411 simple rings.