Celebrating the snake in jewellery and art

An exhibition in Mumbai reiterates the power of the serpent motif in ornamentation and shines a light on Jaipur's wealth of gemstones

- Pooja Singh

As I was leaving Serpenti Infinito, an exhibition in Mumbai dedicated to Italian jeweller Bvlgari’s seven-decade-long fascination with the snake, a dimly lit 19x19cm photo frame caught my attention.

The frame contained an ink-on-paper sketch of two entwined snakes circling a star filled with Sanskrit words. It was a 17th-century Nag-Pash Yantra work believed to mitigate the impact of kaal sarp dosh, a planetary alignment in traditional astrology that’s said to bring hardships to a person's life.

The 200-year-old photograph bore a striking resemblance to Bvlgari’s Serpenti Hidden Eternity necklace on display two floors above at the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre’s Art House. Was there a connection between the framed piece and the two diamond-encrusted entwined serpents embellished with blue sapphire, rubellites and emeralds?

“It's a big coincidence,” said Sean Anderson, the show’s curator. “Jean-Christophe Babin (Bvlgari’s chief executive) and I noticed it just yesterday.”