Earring

Date:: 6th–7th century

Culture:: Langobardic or Byzantine (?)

Medium:: Gold, glass, and pearls.

Dimensions:: Overall: 1 3/4 x 9/16 x 1 1/8 in. (4.5 x 1.5 x 2.8 cm) 1 3/4in. (4.5cm) hoop: 1 in. (2.6 cm) Overall (basket): 1/2 x 9/16 in. (1.3 x 1.5 cm)

Classification:: Metalwork-Gold

Credit Line:: Purchase, 1895

Accession Number:: 95.15.125

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 301

Fashionable in Italy for at least a century before the arrival of the Langobards, earrings of the “basket” variety, like the many shown in this case, quickly became part of Langobardic women’s dress.

Samuel T. Baxter, Florence (from at least 1886-1895)

Catalogue of Etruscan jewellery with some Roman and Langobardic ornaments in the collection of S.T. Baxter. Florence: Claudian Press, 1886. no. 77, p. 9.

Mariën, Marcel Édouard, ed. L'Art mérovingien. Brussels: Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, 1954. p. 49, pl. 25.

Brown, Katharine Reynolds. "Langobardic Earrings." The Connoisseur 205 (1980). pp. 272–75, fig. 1, 2.

Brown, Katharine R., Dafydd Kidd, and Charles T. Little, ed. From Attila to Charlemagne: Arts of the Early Medieval Period in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York and New Haven: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000. p. 166, 339, fig. 14.6.

From Attila to Charlemagne: Arts of the Early Medieval Period in The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Jewelry

Department

Medieval Art (7,126)

Object Type / Material

Costume (43,145)

Ear ornaments (2,201)