A BYZANTINE GOLD FINGER RING CIRCA 7TH CENTURY A.D.

拍品描述

A BYZANTINE GOLD FINGER RING, CIRCA 7TH CENTURY A.D. Of substantial form, the wide hoop composed of multiple parallel bands of twisted wire and plaited filigree bordered above and below by beaded rope-work, rising at the shoulders to support a large circular bezel. The bezel is constructed as a raised disc framed by a double twisted wire border, the outer register filled with a running guilloche of looped filigree punctuated by fine granules, the central field bearing a quadripartite composition of four triangular clusters of granulation radiating from the centre to form a cruciform device. The junction of bezel and hoop is marked at either side by applied granule triads. The interior of the hoop is plain and smoothly finished. The decorative programme is characteristic of Early Byzantine goldsmithing, in which the combined vocabulary of filigree and granulation was used to build up richly textured surfaces without recourse to inlaid stones. The cruciform arrangement at the centre of the bezel, formed from four granulated lobes meeting at a common point, is consistent with the Christian iconography that pervades personal ornament of the period, in which the cross appears in overt and disguised forms on rings, pectorals, and marriage jewellery. Read in this light, the bezel functions less as a decorative roundel than as a compressed devotional emblem carried on the hand of the wearer. Gold in the Byzantine world carried meaning beyond its intrinsic value. The solidus, struck at a stable weight from the reign of Constantine onward, made refined gold the medium of imperial authority, ecclesiastical treasure, and elite personal adornment alike. Rings of this weight and construction, requiring a considerable quantity of fine metal and the sustained attention of a specialist goldsmith trained in filigree and granulation, belong to the upper register of Byzantine personal ornament and would have been commissioned within court, senatorial, or high ecclesiastical circles, most probably in one of the major workshops of Constantinople or the eastern provinces. The techniques on display, drawn twisted wire, plaited filigree, and controlled granulation applied without visible solder, represent the continuation of Hellenistic and Late Roman practice into the Early Byzantine period, when they reached a particular refinement in the sixth and seventh centuries before contracting sharply in the disruptions that followed. This ring exemplifies the Early Byzantine goldsmith's preference for wrought surface over set stone, using filigree and granulation to build a devotional and decorative programme entirely from worked metal. The disciplined geometry of the bezel, the density and regularity of the hoop, and the weight of gold employed place it within the elevated class of seventh-century personal ornament in which Christian symbolism and courtly luxury were carried together on the hand. Dimensions: Diameter of face: 1.7 cm; internal diameter: 2 cm.

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