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In Jewelry,a volume in the Smithsonian Illustrated Library of Antiques, Marie-Louise d’Otrange Mastai, explains that during the sixteenth century certain styles of jewelry became strongly connected to certain regions. Wearing gold chains became the trend in Germany, where the chains were valued not only for suspending pendants but were considered important in their own right. As an example, she cites this portrait:
Painted by Hans Krell, about 1530, it shows Princess Emilia of Saxony in her betrothal finery, wearing three neck chains beneath a choker. The chains are quite obviously a display of wealth and status.
 Italy had a slightly different take on wearing chains if the woman in the sixteenth-century painting "A Lady as Lucretia" by Lorenzo Lotto is typical:
The young noblewoman is wearing a jeweled pendant suspended from a tangle of gold chains that are tucked into the bodice of her dress |
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