A BYZANTINE SILVER CROSS, CIRCA 7TH-9TH CENTURY A.D.

拍品描述

A BYZANTINE SILVER CROSS, CIRCA 7TH-9TH CENTURY A.D. Of Latin form with slightly flaring arms terminating in gently rounded ends, surmounted by an integral suspension loop set transversely to the plane of the cross. The obverse of each arm is bordered by a raised linear frame enclosing a central ridge that runs the length of the arm, giving the surface a faceted, ribbed profile. At the crossing, a raised circular boss forms the visual centre, from which the ridged arms radiate. The terminals of each arm are marked with grouped ring-and-dot motifs, three at the head, three at the foot, and three at each lateral terminal, punched into the reserved fields. The metal has developed a dark patina overall, with pale green cuprous deposits and fibrous accretions concentrated in the recesses of the design. The decorative programme is austere and legible. The central boss at the intersection, combined with the ridges emanating outward along each arm, produces the impression of a radiant or gemmed cross, a familiar Byzantine schema in which the crux gemmata of imperial and ecclesiastical art is echoed in miniature on personal ornaments. The ring-and-dot punchmarks at the terminals substitute, in this humble register, for the settings or inlays found on more elaborate pectoral crosses in gold and precious stones. There is no figural imagery, no inscription, and no evidence of a hinged compartment, indicating that this is a simple pectoral cross rather than an encolpion or reliquary cross. Pectoral crosses of this general type were worn suspended at the breast as devotional and apotropaic objects across the Byzantine world, from the eastern Mediterranean provinces through the Balkans and into the wider spheres of Byzantine cultural influence. They were produced in a range of metals, most commonly copper alloy, with silver examples occupying a middle position between the base-metal crosses of the general populace and the gold pectorals of the elite. The use of silver here carries meaning of its own within the Byzantine devotional economy: silver was associated with purity and with liturgical vessels, and its selection for a personal cross suggests a wearer of some means and a certain seriousness of purpose, without approaching the courtly register of gold and enamel. The stylistic vocabulary, the flaring arms, the ribbed and framed surface, the ring-and-dot terminal ornaments, and the transverse loop, situates the piece in the broad middle Byzantine horizon between the seventh and ninth centuries, a period during which personal crosses proliferated as portable expressions of Christian identity, particularly in the wake of the Iconoclast controversies when non-figural devotional imagery held a privileged position. This cross exemplifies the sober, geometric idiom of Byzantine personal devotion in silver, in which the visual language of the jewelled imperial cross is translated into a modest, wearable form. The ribbed arms and central boss preserve, in reduced compass, the radiant symbolism of the crux gemmata, and the object stands as a characteristic survival of middle Byzantine lay piety. Dimensions: Height: 5.7 cm

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