The two saints stand holding books and supporting between them a large cross. The youthful figure at the left and the bearded one at the right closely resemble early depictions of the evangelists John and Matthew. The plaque may have been a cover for a religious text.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Plaque with Two Saints
Date:6th century
Geography:Made in Syrian, Antioch
Culture:Byzantine
Medium:Silver, parcel gilt
Dimensions:Overall: 10 1/16 x 8 11/16 x 1/2 in. (25.5 x 22 x 1.3 cm) Overall (Mount): 11 7/16 x 9 1/2 x 5/8 in. (29 x 24.1 x 1.6 cm)
Classification:Metalwork-Silver
Credit Line:Fletcher Fund, 1947
Object Number:47.100.36
[ Fahim Joseph Kouchakji, New York (sold 1945)]; [ Brummer Gallery, Paris and New York (1945–sold 1947)]
Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Pavillon de Marsan. "Exposition internationale d'art byzantin," May 28–July 9, 1931.
Worcester Art Museum. "The Dark Ages, loan exhibition of early Christian and Byzantine art," February 20–March 21, 1937.
Baltimore Museum of Art. "Early Christian and Byzantine art, an exhibition held at the Baltimore Museum of Art," April 25–June 22, 1947.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art. "The Middle Ages: Treasures from The Cloisters and The Metropolitan Museum of Art," January 18, 1970–March 29, 1970.
Chicago. Art Institute of Chicago. "The Middle Ages: Treasures from The Cloisters and The Metropolitan Museum of Art," May 16, 1970–July 5, 1970.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Age of Spirituality: Late Antique and Early Christian Art, Third to Seventh Century," November 19, 1977–February 12, 1978.
Walters Art Museum. "Silver from Early Byzantium," April 18–August 17, 1986.
The Dark Ages: Loan Exhibition of Pagan and Christian Art in the Latin West and Byzantine East. Worcester, Mass.: Worcester Art Museum, 1937. no. 85, p. 36, ill.
Miner, Dorothy, ed. Early Christian and Byzantine Art: An Exhibition Held at the Baltimore Museum of Art. Baltimore: Walters Art Museum, 1947. no. 391, p. 86, pl. LIV.
Downey, Glanville. "The Inscription on a Silver Chalice from Syria in the Metropolitan Museum of Art." American Journal of Archaeology 55, no. 4 (October 1951). p. 349.
Downey, Glanville. "A Processional Cross." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 12, no. 9 (May 1954). pp. 276, 279.
Ostoia, Vera K. The Middle Ages: Treasures from the Cloisters and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1969. no. 9, pp. 30–1, 252.
Weitzmann, Kurt, ed. Age of Spirituality: Late Antique and Early Christian Art, Third to Seventh Century. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1979. no. 585, pp. 619–20.
Mango, Marlia Mundell. Silver From Early Byzantium: The Kaper Koraon and Related Treasures. Baltimore: Walters Art Gallery, 1986. no. 46, pp. 18, 28–33, 63, 206–210, fig. 46.1–46.3.
Durand, Jannic, ed. Byzance: L'Art Byzantin dans les Collections Publiques Françaises. Paris: Musée du Louvre, 1992. p. 116, fig. 1.
Elbern, Victor. "Heilige Zeichen im frühbyzantinischen Altarraum." In Arte d'Occidente: Temi e Metodi. Studi in onore di Angiola Maria Romanini, edited by Antonio Cadei. Vol. 2. Rome: Sintesi informazione, 1999. p. 757, fig. 4.
Elbern, Victor. "Heilige Zeichen im frühbyzantinischen Altarraum." In Fructus operis II: Beiträge zur liturgischen Kunst des frühen Mittelalters: zum 85. Gebrutstag des Verfassers in Verbindung mit der Görres-Gesellschaft, edited by Johann Michael Fritz. Regensburg: Schnell & Steiner, 2003. p. 81, fig. 4.
Kitzinger, Beatrice E., and Cambridge University Press. The Cross, the Gospels, and the Work of Art in the Carolingian Age. Cambridge, 2019. p. 222 (p. 40 n. 37).
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