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One of the more distinctive Renaissance styles, popular in the 16th century and on through the 19th, is what I've come to think of as "suspension" pendants. These were rather large, y elaborate pendants, suspended on either end from chains (usually open link) that would then meet above the pendant and be connected, by a ring or a jewel.
 Tait explains: "Such huge pendants were intended to be worn over rich brocades, particularly for pinning on high up on stiff sleeves so that the jewels were free to swing, catching the light as they moved." While a great deal of medieval and Renaissance jewelry had religious themes, these large suspended pendants often depicted fantastical creatures made of gold, enamel, and gems. Here's a delightful 17th-century emerald dragon, with extraordinary front-and-back views, from the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Mythical themes were also popular. The Cooper-Hewett has a suspended pendant dated to late sixteenth-early seventeenth century that shows a tiny enameled Europa being borne off by almost equally tiny bull. Another well-known pendant in this style depicts Venus and Cupid sitting on the back of an enameled sea monster. The pendant is suspended by two gold chains; one connects to the sea monster’s back fin, the other to his little gold crown. Venus and her son, charmingly nude, are encircled by a golden scarf. This pendant, which currently resides in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, dates back to the end of the 16th century.
Of course, not everyone in Europe was weighted down with heavy gold and extravagant gems. Though long chains began to go out of fashion in the early 1600s during the reign of James I, chains themselves never really disappeared. Even commoners continued to wear chains, sometimes wrapped twice around the wrist as a bracelet. In 1912, a collection of jewelry -thought to have been part of a jeweler's stock - was found underneath the floorboards of a house in Cheapside, London. Called the Cheapside Hoard, these items are thought to have been the sort of jewelry worn by lesser nobility and the families of wealthy merchants during the Jacobean and Edwardian eras. The collection, currently split among the British Museum, the Museum of London, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Guildhall Museum, features absolutely lovely jewels. In addition to rings, earrings, and pendants, there are a number of fine chain necklaces, many of them alternating delicate gold links with enamel flowers, pearls, or cabochon and faceted gems:
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