Title Page, from Des Pendants de Cleffs pour les Femmes 1580 - 1600

Curator: I’m immediately struck by how ornate and almost whimsical this design is. It's as if practical adornment has become an invitation into another realm. Editor: Indeed! This is the title page from “Des Pendants de Cleffs pour les Femmes,” created between 1580 and 1600 by Johann Theodor de Bry. It’s an engraving, intended to showcase designs for pendants, specifically key pendants for women, as the title tells us. Curator: “Key pendants for women”—the very notion sparks curiosity. It’s intriguing how a seemingly simple item gets elevated, transformed into wearable art. What do you make of the figures, these cherubs, mythical beasts and seductive ladies intertwined within? Editor: Right? Well, these weren’t mere decorations; they signified status, identity, and access. Keys symbolized control over households and belongings, while the artistic pendants asserted a woman's position and taste within society. This piece acts as a glimpse into Renaissance notions of gender, ownership, and adornment. Curator: So it’s a confluence of the ornamental and the functional, of personal expression and societal role. I see now what felt both magical and a little burdened: This image represents the delightful possibilities available only within the framework of societal constraints of women’s station in the Renaissance. Editor: Exactly. These key pendants offered an avenue for agency but remained tethered to restrictive realities of the time. It makes one wonder, how did these designs play into a woman’s negotiations of space, authority, and autonomy? How did women actually *wear* them, and what did it signify to be bejeweled in such a blatant indication of privilege and domesticity? Curator: Right. Like walking around with a glittering résumé, listing responsibilities alongside assets. Editor: It’s the dialogue between private life and public display that resonates today. I see so much historical DNA embedded in present-day conversations about power, access and visual representation. Curator: I'll look at keychains, even simple rings on bags, in a totally different light from now on. There is always history within something. Editor: The conversation this artwork creates between art, society, and identity keeps going, across the centuries.