attributed to Giacinto Melillo

Cf.: David Bennett and Danial Mascetti, Understanding Jewellery, Woodbridge, 2003, pg. 140, for this necklace illustrated with a pair of matching earrings.

This necklace is an almost identical reproduction of a necklace dating from the 5^th century BC housed at the Magna Graecia section of the Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Naples. This necklace was found at Ruvo in Puglia and was bequeathed to the Museum as part of the Ficco Collection which contains many other important jewels dating to the Greek colonization of Southern Italy between the 8^th and 3^rd centuries BC.

Giacinto Melillo

Giacinto Melillo (1846-1915) was one of the most talented jewellers of the archeological revival movement, yet fairly little is know about his life.

Melillo began his career as an apprentice in the Neapolitan workshop of Alessandro Castellani where he learned to master the designs and techniques inspired by the nearby archeological sites of Pompei and Herculaneum. Under Castellani he reached the position of head workmaster in 1870, before branching out on his own. Melillo pieces are seldom ever signed and can usually only be identified by their recogniseable wooden fitted cases. Melillo was inspired by Greek, Roman and Etruscan antiquity as well as by late antiquity. His creations display the highest level or technical and artistic virtuosity ever achieved within the archeological revival style.