With a youthful Christ with a cruciform halo, two archangels, and crosses
Inscribed in Greek: Of Saint John of the village of Attaroutha
In early images of Christ he is always shown as a youth with short, curly hair. His halo is cruciform with three arms to represent the cross upon which he died. The flanking medallions containing archangels, the guardians of heaven, suggest that here Christ is shown in heaven.
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Artwork Details
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Title:The Attarouthi Treasure - Censer
Date:500–650
Geography:Made in Attarouthi, Syria
Culture:Byzantine
Medium:Silver and gilded silver with copper liner
Dimensions:Overall (without chain): 3 1/4 x 5 3/16 in. (8.2 x 13.2 cm) Overall (hanging with chain): 15 1/16 x 5 3/16 in. (38.2 x 13.2 cm) Diam. of foot: 2 5/16 in. (5.9 cm); 565.4g
Classification:Metalwork-Silver
Credit Line:Purchase, Rogers Fund and Henry J. and Drue E. Heinz Foundation, Norbert Schimmel, and Lila Acheson Wallace Gifts, 1986
Accession Number:1986.3.11
Inscription: [in Greek:] Of [ the Church of ] Saint John of the village of Attarouthi
From Attarouthi, Syria; [ Elias Bustros, Beirut (by 1940)]; [ Sleiman Abou Taam, Beirut and Switzerland (1965–1986)]
State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. "Dekorativno-Prikladnoe Iskusstvo ot Pozdnei Antichnosti do Pozdnei Gotiki," June–December 1989.
State Hermitage Museum, Leningrad. "Dekorativno-Prikladnoe Iskusstvo ot Pozdnei Antichnosti do Pozdnei Gotiki," February–July 1990.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Mirror of the Medieval World," March 9–June 1, 1999.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Byzantium and Islam: Age of Transition," March 14–July 8, 2012.
Frazer, Margaret English. "Silver Liturgical Objects from Attarouthi in Syria." In Byzantine Studies Conference Abstracts of Papers. Vol. 14. Madison, Wisconsin: Byzantine Studies Conference, 1988. pp. 13–14.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. "One Hundred Twentieth Annual Report of the Trustees for the Fiscal Year July 1, 1989, through June 30, 1990." Annual Report of the Trustees of the Metropolitan Museum of Art 120 (1990). p. 28.
Pushkin Museum and State Hermitage Museum. Dekorativno-Prikladnoe Iskusstvo ot Pozdnei Antichnosti do Pozdnei Gotiki: Kratkii Katalog Vystavki. Moscow: Pushkin Museum, 1990. no. 10, p. 10.
State Hermitage Museum. Dekorativno-Prikladnoe Iskusstvo ot Pozdnei Antichnosti do Pozdnei Gotiki. St. Petersburg: State Hermitage Museum, 1990. no. 10, pp. 28–29.
Maguire, Henry P. The Icons of their Bodies: Saints and Their Images in Byzantium. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996. p. 105.
Piguet-Panayotova, Dora. "Silver Censers: A Hexagonal Decorated Silver Censer in the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich." In Acta XIII Congressus Internationalis Archaeologiae Christianae, edited by Nenad Cambi, and Emilio Marin. Vol. 3. Split, Croatia: Pontificio Istituto di Archeologia Cristiana, 1998. pp. 646–653, fig. 11–23.
Wixom, William D., ed. Mirror of the Medieval World. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1999. no. 46, pp. 37–38.
Dandridge, Pete. "A Study of the Gilding of Silver in Byzantium." In Gilded Metals: History, Technology and Conservation. London: Archetype Publications, 2000. pp. 125–139, fig. 7.1.
Eisenberg, Jerome M. "The New Byzantine Galleries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art." Minerva 12, no. 3 (2001). pp. 26–27, fig. 13.
Evans, Helen C., Melanie Holcomb, and Robert Hallman. "The Arts of Byzantium." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, n.s., 58, no. 4 (Spring 2001). pp. 38, 50, 60.
Elbern, Victor. "Zehn Kelche und eine Taube : Bemerkungen zum liturgischen Schatzfund von Attarouhti [ Attarouthi ]." Oriens Christianus 88 (2004). pp. 233–253, fig. 1.
Dandridge, Pete. "The Exhibition of Unlacquered Silver at the Metropolitan Museum of Art." Journal of the American Institute for Conservation 44 (2005). pp. 178–179.
Elbern, Victor. "Zehn Kelche und eine Taube. Bemerkungen zum liturgischen Schatzfund von Attarouhti." In Fructus operis III : ausgewählte kunsthistorische Schriften aus den Jahren 1961-2007, edited by Michael Brandt. Regensburg: Schnell & Steiner, 2008. pp. 378–98.
Barnet, Peter. "Medieval Europe." In Philippe de Montebello and The Metropolitan Museum of Art: 1977–2008, edited by James R. Houghton. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2009. p. 25.
Piguet-Panayotova, Dora. "The Attarouthi Chalices." Mitteilungen zur spätantiken Archäologie und byzantinischen Kunstgeschichte 6 (2009). pp. 9–76, fig. 1.
Scott, David A. Ancient Metals: Microstructure and Metallurgy. Vol. 1. Los Angeles: Conservation Science Press, 2011. p. 41.
Evans, Helen C., and Brandie Ratliff, ed. Byzantium and Islam: Age of Transition, 7th–9th century. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2012. no. 22j, pp. 4, 8–9, 41–44.
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