A MEDIEVAL GOLD & ENAMEL DECORATED RING, CIRCA 12TH-13TH CENTURY

拍品描述

A MEDIEVAL GOLD AND ENAMEL DECORATED RING, CIRCA 12TH-13TH CENTURY Of substantial construction, the ring formed with a broad rectangular bezel raised on shouldered supports above a plain hoop. The bezel is worked in cloisonné technique, the surface divided by fine gold wire cells into a design of interlocking scrolling roundels arranged in a vertical sequence, the compartments filled with lapis-blue and pale turquoise-white enamel. The scrollwork reads as a symmetrical field of paired volutes, the smaller white-filled cells punctuating the larger blue grounds to produce a controlled, rhythmic pattern. The shoulders are stepped and moulded, and the surviving portion of the hoop retains traces of a matching quatrefoil enamel motif set within a small square cell, indicating that the decoration continued around the band. The cloisonné technique used here, in which gold wires are soldered to a metal ground to form cells that are then filled with vitreous paste and fired, was among the most prestigious enamelling methods of the medieval world. The palette of deep blue against opaque white is characteristic of the enamel vocabulary shared across Byzantine, western European, and Rus' workshops from the tenth through thirteenth centuries, when the technique moved between courts by way of diplomatic gift, dynastic marriage, and ecclesiastical commission. The scrolling foliate design belongs to a broadly Byzantinising ornamental repertoire that was adopted and adapted well beyond Constantinople, appearing on reliquaries, book covers, and personal ornaments alike. Gold rings of this scale and quality were not everyday jewellery. The weight of the metal, the labour required to lay and fire the cloisons, and the cost of the enamel materials themselves placed such objects firmly within the sphere of aristocratic or ecclesiastical commission. Enamel on gold, in particular, carried a symbolic charge beyond its material value: the fusion of imperishable metal with coloured glass was understood in medieval thought as a durable emblem of status and, in devotional contexts, of the incorruptible. This ring exemplifies the survival of Byzantine cloisonné practice into personal ornament of the high medieval period, where the disciplined geometry of the cell-work and the restricted blue-and-white palette combine to produce a jewel of considerable presence on a small scale. The clarity of the surviving enamel and the completeness of the ornamental scheme place it among the more legible examples of its type. Dimensions: Length of face 1.7 cm; internal diameter 1.9 cm

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