A BRONZE PENDANT CROSS BYZANTINE, 5TH-7TH CENTURY

拍品描述

A BYZANTINE BRONZE RELIQUARY CROSS PENDANT (ENKOLPION), EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN, 5TH-7TH CENTURY Of Latin form with slightly flaring arms of rectangular section, the cross cast in two hinged halves joined at the base by a knuckled hinge and originally secured at the top by a corresponding suspension mount, from which rises a broad ribbed loop for a cord or chain. The obverse is engraved with the standing figure of Christ, frontal and haloed, the head bearded and framed by a cruciform nimbus, the right hand raised in benediction and the left holding a codex against the chest. The drapery falls in schematic parallel folds to the ankles, the feet turned outward on a shallow ground line. Above the head, flanking a small incised cross, are the abbreviated Greek letters identifying the figure. To the viewer's left, within the terminal of the transverse arm, is a bust-length haloed figure, and to the right a corresponding bust holding a long cross-staff and shown crowned. The lower arm carries an incised ornamental panel of lanceolate leaves flanking a rosette. The surface bears a stable green and azurite patina with earthen accretions in the recesses. The iconographic programme is that of the standard Middle Byzantine pectoral reliquary, though in an early form. The central figure of Christ, shown as teacher and blesser rather than crucified, follows the pre-iconoclastic preference for the living Christ of the Second Coming over the suffering Christ of Golgotha. The flanking busts are to be understood as members of the standard Deesis or intercessory group: the Virgin at one terminal and, given the cross-staff and crown, most probably a military or imperial saintly figure, or Saint John, at the other. Such crosses were made in two halves precisely so that they could be opened, and would have contained a relic, most commonly a fragment of cloth touched to a holy site, oil from a shrine lamp, or a splinter associated with the True Cross. The object was worn on the body, against the chest, as a portable sanctuary. Cast bronze was the medium of the widely distributed pilgrim and devotional economy of the early Byzantine world, produced in workshops at Constantinople, in Syria-Palestine, and in Egypt, and carried across the empire and beyond its frontiers by pilgrims, soldiers, and merchants. The choice of bronze here is not incidental: it was durable enough to be worn continuously and to survive burial with its owner, cheap enough to be produced in quantity for a broad devotional market, and dignified enough to enclose a relic. The engraving technique, with its firm linear outlines and hatched interior shading, belongs to a tradition of chased metalwork that runs from late Roman military fittings into the metropolitan and provincial workshops of the early Byzantine centuries. Reliquary crosses of this construction, hinged at top and bottom and cast in two shells, became one of the defining objects of Byzantine personal piety. The earliest examples date from the century following the recognition of Christianity, and the type continued, with iconographic modifications, well into the Middle Byzantine period. The presence here of a standing, living Christ, rather than the crucified Christ that dominates from the ninth century onward, is consistent with the earlier end of that range. This cross exemplifies the early Byzantine enkolpion at the point where the type was still finding its iconographic vocabulary: the standing Christ of the pre-iconoclastic tradition, the flanking intercessors reduced to bust-length medallions in the terminals, and the whole conceived as a wearable container rather than as a purely emblematic object. It belongs to the devotional culture that translated the sanctity of pilgrimage sites into portable form, and survives as a direct material witness to that translation. Dimensions: Height 7 cm

图片