LOT 0346

Medieval Gilt Plaques with Evangelists Holding Gospels

SERBIA, 14TH CENTURY A.D.

2 1/2 in. (13.80 grams total, 61 mm each).

A pair of copper or brass gilt plaques with openwork representation of two nimbate Evangelists, holding a gospel with the left hand, the right hand raised for blessing and manifestation of the divine and human nature of God, appliques for a belt or a personal ornament, four fastening holes at the corners. [2, No Reserve]

Ex central London gallery; acquired on the UK art market.
From the private collection of John Meredith, acquired since the 1990s; thence by descent.
This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.

See Popović, D., Riznica spasenja. Kult relikvija i srpskih svetih u srednjovekovnoj Srbiji /The Treasury of Salvation. The Cult of Relics and Serbian Saints in Medieval Serbia, Beograd, 2018.

The medieval Kingdom of Serbia was in its material culture strongly under the influence of Byzantium, but had also undergone cultural and artistic developments from western countries. The decoration - especially the technique of filigree and granulation, and the ornamental motifs and their composition - shows some similarities both to the Byzantine and to the Western gold work of the 11th–13th century. The openwork decoration of these objects is similar to the foliage represented on one sarcophagus positioned against the south wall of the church of St Demetrius, in the Patriarchate of Peć, dated to the 14th century AD.