A stunning visual journey through four millennia of jewelry as told through the exemplary collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

From ancient Egyptian broad collars to contemporary studio pieces, jewelry has been used as a powerful communication tool across millennia—and around the world. The renowned collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, showcases global stories of human ingenuity through an incredible array of jewelry designs, materials and techniques. Each object boasts a unique history of its own; when considered side by side, however, they speak to one another, these cross-cultural and multigenerational conversations inviting the reader to consider new insights and fresh perspectives on the art form.
Brilliance explores jewelry as a messenger, a decorative art and an object of adornment over the course of four thousand years. This catalog features more than 100 works in the MFA's collection, exploring their makers, their uses and their meanings in three curatorial chapters complete with gorgeous reproductions of the works. Object spotlights written by celebrated art historians and artists working in the field today accompany these essays, with writing by Joyce J. Scott, Helen Drutt, Melanie Grant and many more. In championing the breadth and depth of the MFA's collection, Brilliance includes both exquisitely humble and extraordinarily detailed objects that together illustrate the timeless human desires to self-fashion, collect and create. Included are works by Alexander Calder, Art Smith, Elsa Peretti, René Boivin, Bulgari, Tiffany & Co. and many others. Whether in silver or gold, pearls or plastic, jewelry tells many multifaceted stories about its makers, wearers, collectors and, ultimately, human nature as a whole.

Text by: Nina Burr, Tanya Crane, Helen W. Drutt English, Melanie Grant