Discover how jewelry embodies the desire to self-fashion, collect, and create

From ancient Egyptian broad collars to contemporary studio pieces, the story of jewelry spans time and space. So, too, do the stories jewelry can tell. 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 across cultures and generations.

Brilliance explores jewelry as a messenger, a decorative art, and an object of adornment over the course of four thousand years. This catalogue features more than 150 works in the MFA’s collection, exploring their makers, their uses, and their meanings. 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. Whether in silver or gold, pearls or plastic, jewelry tells multifaceted stories about its makers, wearers, collectors, and, ultimately, human nature as a whole.