The Crucifixion
This medallion, probably from a book cover, can be securely attributed to the celebrated pilgrimage abbey of Conques, France’s richest surviving repository of medieval goldsmiths’ work. Among the rare works dispersed from its treasury in the nineteenth century, several share a distinctive technique, style, and palette uniquely combined during the abbacy of Bégon III in the late eleventh century. The monkgoldsmiths have here superimposed copper plaques, the lower one set with cloisons (wires) that define features and drapery, and the upper one cut to define the silhouettes of the figures and the cross.
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