SPANISH, LATE 17TH CENTURY

The fashion for jeweled animal pendants may be traced as far back as pre-Columbian civilization. The interpretation of animal forms, including the frog, symbolized diverse cultural significances. 'The frog for the Aztecs represented the rain God while for some South American native tribes the yellow tree frog is a source of poison...though for Christians, the frog was symbolic of the resurrection of the flesh.' (P. Muller, Jewels in Spain, 2012, p.34) The popularity of the jeweled frog pendant in European culture, often worn in the form of a pendant as protection against the 'evil eye,' marks the acknowledgement of early American traditions. A similar frog pendant, also from the Gutman collection, was listed in a Spanish Inventory of 1623, according to Estebán García Chico, ‘Documentos para el estudio de arte en Castilla’, Valladolid, 1963. (P. Muller, Jewels in Spain, 2012, p.34)