Gold Earring with Pearls and Sapphires

Date:: 6th–7th century

Culture:: Byzantine

Medium:: Gold, sapphire, pearls

Dimensions:: Overall: 2 3/8 x 15/16 x 1/2 in. (6.1 x 2.4 x 1.2 cm) w/o hook: 1 9/16 x 15/16 x 3/8 in. (4 x 2.4 x 0.9 cm) Wt.: 12g

Classification:: Metalwork-Gold

Credit Line:: Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917

Accession Number:: 17.190.145

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 301

These elegant earrings are decorated with pearls, a favorite jewel of the Byzantines. Sapphires, then called hyakinthoi (hyacinths), became popular in Byzantine jewelry in the sixth century.

Cyprus Treasure, found at Karavas, Cyprus, 1902; J. Pierpont Morgan, London and New York (until 1917)

Dalton, O. M. Byzantine Art and Archeology. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1911. pp. 534-549, fig. 317.

Stylianou, A. and J. Hoi thesauroi tes Lampouses. Vasilia, Lapethos, Cyprus, 1969. pp. 49-64, fig. 44.

Humphrey, Lyle. "Collecting Christianity on the Nile: J. Pierpont Morgan and The Metropolitan Museum of Art." In Age of Transition: Byzantine Culture in the Islamic World, edited by Helen C. Evans. New York: Yale University Press, 2015. pp. 3-4, fig. 3.

Age of Transition: Byzantine Culture in the Islamic World
Metropolitan Jewelry

Department

Medieval Art (7,125)

Object Type / Material

Costume (43,211)

Ear ornaments (2,201)