Anthony G. Ballatore - Sculptor Jeweller

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The Prince of Dariabar Medallion*

         Dariabar is an enchanted and magical island in the ocean of everyone's imagination.
         Deryabar (Pronounced Dariabar in the 1946 RKO movie with Douglas Fairbanks Jr.) was the island on which Sinbad the sailor's father buried Alexander the Great's lost treasures. Sinbad's father, having had to abandon his son as a baby, left his son the medallion of the Prince of Dariabar; for Sinbad is The Prince of Dariabar. This gold and silver medallion gave Sinbad the instructions ("In the eight month the winds are willing") needed to find his father on the Island of Dariabar.
         Extreme and cheesy staging, acting, and story is what I would call the movie. Yet it captured my imagination, and the imaginations of many others. Fireballs falling from the sky to rid the world of an evil. Love and Good triumph over greed. Mmmmm. It had, and still has its appeal; its effect.
          Although it is not one of the building blocks of my imagination, it did encourage and stimulate it. It has added its unique elements to the story I suggest in all of my sculptures, jewellery, and wearable art. Whether you are considering one of my photographs, sculptures, brooches, short stories, novels, or poems, the Island of Dariabar will be, to one degree or another, present. For me, Dariabar is a story of imagination, adventure, and love.
          It is my desire to create art that suggests a story that engages your creativity and imagination; a catalyst for dreams and nostalgia, moments and memories, the magic that is in all of us.

* This medallion is a good example of "married metal" casting: a series of castings, one upon another, wherein each casting is fused, or "married" to the next casting. The bail, the star, and the island were sculpted and cast individually in 18K yellow gold. These pieces were then placed on the wax sculpting of the medallion with script and sea. When the medallion was then cast using sterling silver, all the component parts were fused, "married" into a single sculpture. This medallion is very similar to the one used in the movie. The bail is different in that it is the one I sculpted for my pendants. I reduced the medallion's size and weight to match that of a Macedonian Shield coin circa Alexander The Great, and its shape more closely resembles the convex obverse and concave reverse of the Macedonian Shield coins of Alexander's time.

Please feel free to email if you have any questions.

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