"Octopus and Butterfly" brooch

Wilhelm Lukas von Cranach, a descendant of the famous painter Lucas Cranach, first trained as a forester and then studied painting. He owed his reputation to his superb designs for jewellery and other arts-and-crafts objects. The "Octopus and Butterfly" brooch is a masterpiece of Art Nouveau and, in terms of motif and craftsmanship, the most spectacular jewellery creation of this stylistic epoch in Germany.