Medallion from an Icon Frame, ca. 1100
Byzantine; From the Djumati Monastery, Georgia (now Republic of Georgia); Made in Constantinople
Cloisonné enamel, gold; Diam. 3 1/4 in. (8.3 cm)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917 (17.190.678)

This cloisonné medallion, one of nine in the Metropolitan Museum, is from a group of twelve enameled portraits that once decorated the frame of an icon of the archangel Gabriel. The medallions, which have Greek inscriptions identifying the images, are among the finest examples of the enameler's art. Across the top of the frame, three of the medallions formed a Deesis composition—Christ flanked by the Virgin and John the Baptist. In descending order on the sides were the busts of the apostles Peter and Paul (left), then those of the four evangelists (only those of Matthew, Luke, and John survive, right). Across the base were the portraits of Saints George, Demetrious (now in the Musée du Louvre, Paris), and Theodore (now in the Georgian State Art Museum, T’bilsi). Both Paul and the evangelists hold handsomely bound manuscripts of their writings. Saint George, in courtly dress, holds a small cross, symbolic of his martyrdom.

The Byzantine emperor Michael VII Doukas (r. 1071–78) was married to Maria of Alania, daughter of the Georgian King Bagrat` IV. These medallions, which are from the Djumati Monastery (modern Republic of Georgia) may have been sent as a gift from the Byzantine to the Georgian court in connection with the imperial marriage.