This article on Rhodian Orientalizing jewelry re‑examines the corpus preserved in the Louvre Museum, focusing on the figured plaques and elaborate jewels. The re‑examination of the contexts of discovery offers a new framework for interpreting the technical aspects of production and highlights the existence of several workshop practices that produced, repaired and reworked jewels in Antiquity. One of the major conclusions of the investigation is that these objects were used and sometimes reworked over several generations before being deposited in the (...) tombs between the years 630‑620 and the end of the Archaic period. This work has also allowed for a broader reflection on the place of Rhodian goldsmithing in the Eastern Mediterranean during the Archaic period and on its links with Cypriot and, to a lesser extent, Cretan production. While the question of the center of production is now settled in favor of Rhodes, the question of a more precise location of the workshop, defined in particular on the basis of the tools used on numerous pieces of the Rhodian corpus, leads us to favor the Camirean hypothesis and to underline the dynamics induced by the clientele, notably in the process of reworking the jewelry. The article also presents in an appendix the unprecedented analyses of the alloys carried out on the Louvre jewels at the IRAMAT laboratory in Orléans. (shrink)

Présentation de la méthode LA‑ICP‑MS appliquée aux objets d’orfèvrerie rhodiens La méthode LA‑ICP‑MS (Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry ou spectrométrie de masse à plasma avec micro-prélèvement par ablation laser) est une méthode d’analyse multi-élémentaire séquentielle qui permet de déterminer la concentration des trois principaux éléments constitutifs des alliages à base d’or (or, argent, cuivre), ainsi que celle de la plupart des impuretés de ces métaux dont la te...

This paper aims to study the perception of color (representations, synesthesia, denominations, uses and classification) in specific writings such as recipe treatises written from 1520 to 1689. These treatises deal with the manufacture and stages of color in various objects (remedies, blushes and mainly gems). They reveals that color is not only an apparent surface but also a sensitive substance, in particular white and red colors. Although color is a principle of unity for diverse materials, it sometimes becomes contradictory when (...) it is associated with variable signified and signifiers, so that color also offers a play on naming: meaning is sometimes clear, sometimes obscure, and in any case mobile (azure, vermilion). The contemporary reader does not perceive color in the same way as the Renaissance craftsman. Finally, as a principle of classification, it shows an imbalance and hierarchy of colors which, while providing structure to recipes: it gives mainly a place of choice to red and its shades. (shrink)