About This Artwork

Spanish Colonial or Spanish

Pendant of a Mermaid, late 16th/early 17th century (with later modifications)

Gold, enamels, diamonds and pearls
7.6 x 5.9 cm (3 x 2 5/16 in.)
Gift of Marilynn B. Alsdorf, 1992.535

Exhibition, Publication and Ownership Histories

Exhibition History

Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, 1951-62.

The Baltimore Museum of Art, Renaissance Jewels and Jeweled Objects from the Melvin Gutman Collection, 1962-68, cat. 40.

Chicago, The Martin D'Arcy Gallery of Art, The Art of Jewelry 1450-1650, Spring 1975, cat. 49.

Publication History

Ian Wardropper et al, Renaissance Jewelry in the Alsdorf Collection, The Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 25, 2 (2000), pp. 51 and 93, no. 17.

Ownership History

Alfred de Rothschild (died 1918), London [according to Wardropper 2000, p. 93]. Melvin Gutman, New York, by 1951; his sale, New York, Parke-Bernet, October 17, 1969, no. 97; Marilynn B. Alsdorf, Chicago [according to Wardropper 2000, p. 4]; given to the Art Institute, 1992.