On the surface of this exquisitely worked pendant are intricate patterns of florets, palmettes, and variegated borders, and a medallion with the head of a young, beardless man on the front. Crosses embellish the accompanying stick. Temple pendants are thought to have hung near the temple or cheek, suspended from the wearer’s hair or headdress. The pendant’s hollow interior probably held a piece of perfumed cloth; the small stick would have been used to guide the cloth in and out of the pendant.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Temple Pendant and Stick
Date:ca. 1080–1150
Geography:Made in Constantinople
Culture:Byzantine
Medium:Cloisonné enamel, gold
Dimensions:Overall: 1 15/16 × 15/16 in. (4.9 × 2.4 cm) Length stick: 2 × 1/16 in. (5.1 × 0.2 cm)
Classification:Enamels-Cloisonné
Credit Line:Rogers Fund, 1990
Object Number:1990.235a, b
[ Robert Haber and Associates Inc., Ancient Art(sold 1990)]
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Glory of Byzantium," March 11–July 6, 1997.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Mirror of the Medieval World," March 9–June 1, 1999.
Segall, Berta, and Benaki Museum. Katalog der Goldschmiede-Arbeiten. Athens: Druckerei "Pyrsos", 1938.
Ross, Marvin C. "An Emperor's gift and Notes on Byzantine Silver Jewlery of the Middle Period." Journal of the Walters Art Gallery 19/20 (1956). pp.22–33.
Ferté, Coche de la. Collection Hélène Stathatos: Les objets byzantins et post-byzantins. Vol. 2. Limoges: Impr. A. Bontemps, 1957. p. 22.
Hill, Dorothy Kent. "To Perfume The Etruscans and Latins." Archaeology: A Magazine Dealing with the Antiquity of the World, Archaeology Magazine, 18, no. 3 (September 1965). pp. 187–189.
Volbach, W. F. "La Pala d'Oro." In Il Tesoro di San Marco. Vol. 1. Florence: Sansoni, 1965-71. p. 17, fig. XII–XVI.
Bank, Alisa. Byzantine Art in the Collections of the USSR. Leningrad and Moscow: Sovietsky Khudozhnik, 1966.
Brown, Katharine R. "Russo-Byzantine Jewelry in the Metropolitan Museum of Art." Apollo Magazine 111, no. 215 (January 1980). pp. 6–9, 10–15, fig. 1–6, 10-15.
Steenbock, Frauke. Studien zum europäischen Kunsthandwerk: Zeitschrift Yvonne Hackenbroch, edited by Jörg Rasmussen. Munich: Klinkhardt and Biermann, 1983. pp. 25–33.
Derlemenko, Evgenia Anatolevichcha. Medieval cloisonné enamels at Georgian State Museum of Fine Arts. Georgia (country): Victor Kamkin, 1984. pp. 141, 143.
Wixom, William D. "Curatorial Reports and Departmental Accessions." Annual Report of the Trustees of the Metropolitan Museum of Art 121 (Jul. 1, 1990–Jun. 30, 1991). p. 35.
Deppert-Lippitz, Barbara, and Julius Asfalg. Early Christian & Byzantine Art: Textiles, metalwork, frescoes, manuscripts, jewellery, steatites, stone sculptures, tiles, pottery, bronzes, amulets, coins and other items from the fourth to the fourteenth centuries, edited by Richard Temple. London and Shaftesbury, Dorset: Temple Gallery, 1990. no. 11, pp. 18, 56–57, ill. p. 18.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Recent Acquisitions: A Selection, 1990-1991." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, n.s., 49, no. 2 (Fall 1991). p.15.
Griffin, Patricia S. "Jewellery from Kiev." Jewellery studies 6 (1993). pp. 5–17, fig. 20.
Wixom, William. "Two Cloisonne Enamel Pendants: The New York Temple Pendant and the Cleveland Enkolpion." In Byzantine East, Latin West: Art-Historical Studies in Honor of Kurt Weitzmann, edited by Christopher Moss, and Katherine Kiefer. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University, 1995. pp. 659–65, fig. 1, 2.
Evans, Helen C., and William D. Wixom, ed. The Glory of Byzantium: Art and Culture of the Middle Byzantine Era, A.D. 843–1261. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1997. no. 170, pp. 212–13, 246–47, 249, 308, 319, 442, 459, 497, 503.
Wixom, William D., ed. Mirror of the Medieval World. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1999. no. 103, pp. 88–89.
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. 54–55.
Bosselmann-Ruickbie, Antje. Byzantinischer Schmuck des 9. bis frühen 13. Jahrhunderts. Reihne B, Studien und Perspektiven, Vol. 28. Wiesbaden: Reichert Verlag, 2011. pp. 138, 395, fig. 128a, b.
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