reliquary;
relic;
pendant
- Museum number
- 1926,0409.1
- Description
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A round gold and cloisonne' enemal boxwith a suspension-loop and a annular hinged lid, within which is a hinged rectangular flap, opening to reveal an embossed supine figure. The base is enamelled with a half figure of St George in military costume, an unsheathed sword raised in his right hand, his left holding the mouth of the scabbard. There is an identifying inscription. Surrounding the half-figure is an enamelled inscription in Greek: '[The wearer] prays to have you as his ardent protector in battle'. Round the edge of the reliquary, also in enamel, runs the Greek inscription 'Anointed with your blood and holy oil'. The hinged rectangular flap is covered with an enamel supine figure of St Demetrius, identified by an inscription.
Engraved on the annular bezel is a mid-eighteenth-century Georgian inscription suggesting that the reliquary once contained a fragment of the True Cross which belonged or had belonged to St Kethevan, a Georgian queen martyred by Shah Abbas I in 1624.
- Production date
- 11thC
- Dimensions
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Diameter: 37 millimetres
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Height: 46 millimetres
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Thickness: 10.50 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
- Cf. DO BZ.1953.20
Brad Hostetler, 'Toward a typology for the placement of names on works of art,' in Inscribing texts in Byzantium: Continuities and transformations, M. D. Lauxtermann, I. Toth (eds), 267-90 (Routledge) at 279.
- Location
- On display (G40/dc13/sB/no4)
- Exhibition history
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Exhibited:
2011 23 June-9 Oct, London, BM, 'Treasures of Heaven'
2011 13 Feb-8 May, Baltimore, Walters Museum of Art, 'Treasures of Heaven'
2010-2011 17 Oct-6 Jan, Ohio, Cleveland Museum of Art, 'Treasures of Heaven'
2001 10 Oct-2002 10 Jan, Greece, Thessaloniki, The White Tower, Byzantine Hours
1997 3 Mar-6 Jul, USA, New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Glory of Byzantium
- Condition
- Some enamel missing from back.
- Acquisition date
- 1926
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- 1926,0409.1
