A BYZANTINE GOLD & AGATE CROSS, CIRCA 7TH-9TH CENTURY A.D.

拍品描述

A BYZANTINE GOLD AND AGATE CROSS PENDANT, CIRCA 7TH-9TH CENTURY A.D. Of Latin-cross form with squared terminals, the gold plaque surmounted by an integral cylindrical suspension loop set above a small hemispherical boss. The face is worked with an inset cruciform cell of deep red agate, its arms echoing the outline of the plaque and secured within a raised gold bezel. The cell is bordered by a continuous band of applied granulation, the small gold beads set closely along the perimeter of the inset cross to frame the stone against the plain ground of the sheet. The gold retains traces of adhesive residue and light surface accretion across the field, with granules intact and the bezel unbroken. The cross itself is the object's sole ornament, both in the form of the plaque and in the shape of the inlaid stone at its centre. The red agate at the heart of the pendant carries an established Christological reading in Byzantine devotional jewellery, the colour understood in reference to the blood of the Passion and the sacrificial nature of the Cross. The framing of stone within metal, and the doubling of the cross form (agate within gold), produces a small reliquary-like focus intended to be worn against the body beneath the garment or displayed at the throat. Gold cross pendants of this general type belong to a wide production of personal devotional ornaments made across the Byzantine world from the early medieval period onward, in workshops serving both ecclesiastical patrons and lay wearers of some means. The use of sheet gold worked with granulation reflects techniques inherited from late Roman goldsmithing and continued in Constantinopolitan and provincial workshops through the early middle Byzantine centuries. The inlay of hardstone, and agate in particular, links the piece to a wider Mediterranean practice in which coloured stones were selected as much for their symbolic weight as for their visual effect. Gold as a medium carried its own significance in Byzantine thought, associated with the incorruptible light of the divine and reserved, in personal ornament of religious character, for objects of some devotional seriousness. The cross was worn as an enkolpion, a pendant cross suspended from a chain or cord and understood as a protective as well as confessional object. Its small scale and the intactness of the suspension loop indicate active use rather than funerary deposition alone, and pieces of this format are recorded from a broad geography stretching from the Balkans through Anatolia and the Levant. This pendant exemplifies the compact devotional goldwork of the middle Byzantine centuries, in which the Cross is stated twice, in the outline of the plaque and again in the inlaid stone at its centre, and the whole is drawn together by a single band of granulation. It belongs to the quieter and more personal register of Byzantine Christian ornament, where meaning is carried by material and form rather than by figural imagery. Dimensions: Height 2.8 cm

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