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Details
LOT 1100
Byzantine Bronze and Silver Cross Pendant Group
7TH-12TH CENTURY A.D.
7/8 in. (9.65 grams total, 22-31 mm).
Comprising three expanding-arm cross pendants with integral suspension loops, two with ring-and-dot decoration, likely representing the five wounds of Christ. [3]
Provenance
From the collection of a gentleman, acquired on the London art market in the 1990s.
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This magnificent, if fragmentary, icon belongs to the most florid period of Byzantium’s renaissance, when, under the aegis of the Macedonian Dynasty, the political, military, cultural and economic power of the Roman Empire reached the last apex of its glory. The figure detailed in bloodstone here represents Christ, as is clear not only from the cross engraved on the back, but also from the garments he is wearing. It is likely that it is Christ as Pantocrator who is represented, maybe originally forming part of a more complex icon representing the Deesis. While this subject in Eastern Roman art is usually reserved for monumental decoration, it is sometimes found on smaller-scale objects as well, such as cameos and steatite icons.
