‘신미술’의 충격 : 프랑스 아르누보 장신구의 예술성

A Study on the French Art Nouveau Jewelry

The most outstanding art genre in Art Nouveau of the nineteenth century is jewelry. Especially the jewelry of the French artists with great creativity led the birth of the contemporary art jewelry. Focusing on the works of Rene Lalique(1860-1945), Georges Fouquet(1862-1957) and Henri Vever(1854-1942), I have examined the characteristics and significance of the French Art Nouveau jewelry. Unlike the British jewelry which employed machines and mass production, they preferred manual craftsmanship and creative designs. The French Art Nouveau artists used unique materials such as semi precious stones, horn, mother-of-pearl, tortoiseshell, enamel, which had not been used before. They employed these new materials and techniques to create the opulent artistic expressions. At that time, the artists were mainly interested in creating the works for the artist himself or the patrons. Moreover, to produce the perfect artwork, they employed designers for art jewelry designs. The French Art Nouveau jewelry freely exist beyond fine art and applied art, and they were far ahead of the time in that they devoted to creating new artistic quality. Therefore the jewelry of the time is always thrilling and comes with new and fresh impressions to us.