Manfred Bischoff is one of the great goldsmiths of Europe. A gifted artist and an uncompromising craftsman, he can coax an olive leaf into a donkey’s ear, or take a twig of coral and make it symbolize something. His jewelry creations are intimate, deeply lyrical and sensual works of art. In our post-industrial age of reproduction and readymade art, Bischoff and his combination of talents are unusual indeed.

Through the years Manfred Bischoff has primarily worked with gold, coral, and jade. His minute sculptures are deceptively simple, barely masking the ferocious irony and satire that often underlines his work. During his residency in February 2002, Bischoff explored the Museum’s collections, visiting the conservation labs and archives before deciding to focus his attention on the fresco of Hercules by Piero della Francesca. Bischoff’s brooch Or-Son (“center pedestal”) is his response to Piero’s 15th work.

Bischoff was drawn to the unaffected grandeur of Piero’s fresco and decided to research the work in the Museum’s archives. “Among other things I found a wonderful sketch, a working drawing by a restorer; this would also become my working sketch. Searching a little more, he found the sentence: ‘Do not wait to act if you are ready.’ It could have been found written on the façade of Piero’s birthplace, in San Sepolcro, from which the Hercules fresco is said to have been taken Between the phrases ‘Do not wait to act’ and ‘if you are ready’ is the word ‘wait.’ That is it. This pre-explosive waiting; this breathing in and breathing out. Then the gesture.” This sense of anticipation, of the moment before the act, is captured in Bischoff’s work Or-Son.

Elements from high-art tradition are frequently cited in Bischoff’s remarkable jewelry creations. His brooch Madonna del Parto was inspired by Piero’s famous fresco in Montecchi, Italy, while the ring Spanish Chimera makes reference both to a Picasso drawing and the Arezzo Chimera, an Etruscan sculpture well-known in the art world. Bischoff includes a variety of art forms in his work, creating a remarkable interplay between painting, drawing and sculpture. Instead of making drawings that function merely as scale models, he executes rough sketches or small paintings that are works of art in their own right. In this exhibition, paintings are shown as an integral part of the jewelry-works.

Manfred Bischoff was an Artist in Residence in 2002. Winner of many prizes and honors, Bischoff has pioneered an art vocabulary in jewelry for over twenty years. Born in 1947, he worked in Munich and Berlin before moving to Tuscany where he now resides.

Publication: Manfred Bischoff

Learn more about the artist

More about Pierre della Francesca’s Hercules

If you get this frescoe of Pierre della Francesca, I think you will have one of the most important and splendid things ever taken to America—outside of several I could mention in your own collection—it would be one of the few great things, by that rare master.

- Joseph Lindon Smith, painter, to Isabella Stewart Gardner, 1903

Smith was writing about the painting of Hercules by Piero della Francesca (about 1413— 1492). It took four years of wrangling with the Italian government to give Mrs. Gardner possession of the work. As a result, the Gardner Museum is the only place in America where one can see a fresco by Piero della Francesca.

Subtle gradations of light and dark depict the muscular, fleshy body of Hercules. The pose against a simple background makes him appear monumental. His holding of the club doesn’t so much threaten as it underlines his resolve. In ancient mythology, Hercules was half-god, half-human, and Piero has painted him as such: a body of this earth, yet somehow grander. The artist’s vision of the world is orderly: Hercules is calm and immovable, the lionskin is tied neatly to his back, and his legs look slightly bowed.

In 1900, Piero della Francesca’s work was just being discovered by academic art historians and the public. Mrs. Gardner’s purchase of the fresco thus anticipates the phenomenal new interest in Piero’s strange and enigmatic images. Fresco is generally paint applied to wet plaster, and was a technique favored in large interior spaces. This fresco originally decorated a house near Sansepolcro.

Manfred Bischoff
Works in the Exhibition

Or-Son, 2002
Brooch
Fine gold, coral
3 ¼” x 4”x 1”
Located in the visitor orientation space outside of the gallery.

I Want a Sailor Who Comes and Goes, 2000
Brooch
Fine gold, coral
3 ¼” x 2 ¼ ”x ½”

Madonna del Parto, 2002
Brooch
Fine gold, coral
1 ½” x 3”x ¼”
After a Fresco, Madonna del Parto by Piero della Francesca in Monterchi, Italy.

La Lupa (The She Wolf), 2002
Earrings
Fine gold, coral
2 ¼” x 1”x 1”
Inspired by the story of Romulus and Remus, the legendary founders of the ancient city of Rome said to have been suckled by a she-wolf.

Il Fegato Di Piacenza (The Liver of Piacenza), 2000
Brooch
Fine gold, coral
3” x 2” x ¼”
Courtesy of Helen Drutt:Philadelphia
In reference to an Etruscan liver used to foretell the future.

Baghdad Sub Rose, 1999
Brooch
Fine gold, coral
2 ½” x 3”x ½”
Collection of Dr. Karl Bollman, Vienna
Sub Rose means told in Confidence (from the ancient use of the rose at meetings as a symbol of the sworn confidence of the participants.)

Unschärferelation, 1998
Ring
Fine gold, coral, mirror
2 ¼” x 1 ½”x 1”
In reference to a theorem by Heisenberg, the Nobel prize winning physicist

Sleeping God, 1998
Ring
Fine gold, coral, diamonds
1” x 1 ¼”x ¾”
Courtesy of Helen Drutt:Philadelphia
In homage to the God Pan and his three nymphs

Night Visitors, 1998
Ring
Fine gold, coral
1 ¼” x 1 ¾” x ¾”
Private collection

You Can’t Have Anything Done If You Wait For a Man, 2002
Ring
Fine gold
1 ¼” x 2 1/8”x 1 ¼”

Brothers, 2001
Brooch
Fine gold
4”x 3 ½” x ¼”
Courtesy of Joseph Kosuth and Cornelia Lauf, Roma
Inspired by Belgian French fries

Weber’s Lecture, 1999
Brooch
Fine gold, coral
3 ½” x 2 ¼”x ¼”
Collection of Dr. Karl Bollman, Vienna
After a drawing by Albert Einstein made during the Weber lectures.

Trust Fund Baby, 2002
Ring
Fine gold, coral
1 ¼” x 2”x 1”

Point of View, 2002
Brooch
Fine gold, coral
3 ½” x 3 ½” x 1”

Highest Activity-Widest Passivity, 1999
Brooch
Fine gold, coral
3 ¼” x 4”x 1 ¼”
Courtesy of Helen Drutt:Philadelphia
The artist believes that the "highest form of thinking should remain passive when acting"

Fama, 2002
Brooch
Fine gold, coral
3 ½” x 3 ½”x ¼”
Fame and notoriety will perpetuate itself

The Lolitas, 2001
Earrings
Fine gold, coral
2 ¾” x 2”x ¼”

Spanish Chimera, 2001
Ring, Fine gold
Courtesy Gallery Stühler, Berlin
2 ¼” x 1 ¼” x 1”
After a drawing by Picasso of Cervantes’ hero Don Quixote and his donkey.

Pomme de Terre-Pathetique-Tragique, 2002
BroochFine gold, coral
3 ½” x 2 ¼” x ¾”
The pathetic and tragic aspect of a potato

Maximus, 2001
Ring
Fine gold
2 ¼” x 1 ¼” x 1”
Collection of Rike Bartels, San Caseiano dei Bagni
Choose between Jacque Lacan or Mecca. “Create yourself and you will be created" says Bischoff.

L’Homme da Si Si, 1997
Brooch
Fine Gold, coral, found object
4 ¾” x 4”x ¼”
Collection of Dr. Karl Bollman
In homage to Freancis of Assisi.

Noontime Talks

July 10, 2002
Concept Jewel - Cornelia Lauf, art historian and independent curator

September 18, 2002
Moon and Sun – Louis Mueller, department chair, Rhode Island School of Design, Jewelry and Metalsmithing

Gallery Talks
Every Saturday at noon during the exhibition.