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Early Christian and Byzantine Rings in The Zucker Family Collection
Early Christian and Byzantine Rings in The Zucker Family Collection
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Collection
GARY VIKAN
time.
ments, and the same was true for a wide range of civil
and ecclesiastical officials. As for the average citizen,
6.18-19):
and firm....
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metal to men:
with these, the discs number seven and they bear their
lets.
rings.
Marriage Rings
To judge from the scores of surviving examples,
33
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.-f.* '
'ti
%*/ "^r
AF 304.
period, and for the most part evoke only a fairly banal
level of everyday piety. Yet here, and on marriage rings
34
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Figure 5. Ring, Lamb and Dove, gold, Baltimore, The Walters Art Gallery, Zucker Family Collection, no. TL 10.1985.051.
35
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O
Figure 2. Ring, Anchor, gold, Baltimore, The Walters Art Gallery,
Figure 10. Ring, Wedding Couple, gold, Baltimore, The Walters Art
36
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Figure 11. Ring, Wedding Couple, gold, Baltimore, The Walters Art
Figure 16. Ring, gold, Baltimore, The Walters Art Gallery, Zucker
Figure 12. Ring, Monogram, gold, Baltimore, The Walters Art Gal
lery, Zucker Family Collection, no. TL 10.1985.060.
Figure 17. Ring, Invocation, gold, Baltimore, The Walters Art Gal
Figure 13. Ring, Monogram, gold, Baltimore, The Walters Art Gal
lery, Zucker Family Collection, no. TL 10.1985.059.
Figure 15. Ring, gold, Baltimore, The Walters Art Gallery, Zucker
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I. >*\
Figure 21. Ring, St. Demetrios, gold, Baltimore, The Walters Art Gallery, Zucker Family Collection, no. TL 10.1985.055.
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Monogram Rings
With the growth of the Byzantine capital, both the
neutral and the salvation repertoires of signet themes
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Figure 18. Ring, Invocation, gold, Baltimore, The Walters Art Gal
lery, no. 57.1053.
Invocational Rings
The final shift from incised stone to incised metal
Iconic Rings
Byzantium's third major contribution to the
development of the finger ring was at once more sub
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NOTES
1. A comprehensive, fully documented survey of Byzantine finger
rings will appear as chapter two of my forthcoming catalogue of
more than seven hundred Byzantine objects of the minor arts in the
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with a 2.0-2.2 cm diameter; the bezel measures 1.0 x 1.4 cm. Like
22. See, for example, Ross, Catalogue, nos. 64-66; and E. H. Kan
torowicz, "On the Golden Marriage Belt and the Marriage Rings of
the Dumbarton Oaks Collection," Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 14 (1960),
3-42.
23. See, for example, Ross, Catalogue, no. 69; and P. A. Drossoy
10. I owe this reading to John Nesbitt and John Callahan. A num
ber of such rings survive; see, for example, Marshall, Catalogue, no.
649.
(Paris, 1907), figs. 687-689, 695-699, 712, 716, 727, 750 (hereafter,
Leclercq, "Anneaux").
which is set a small disc. From this disc rise six curving, talonlike
wires with terminating pellets which enclose and support the oval
bezel. The hoop is 1.9-2.0 cm in diameter; the bezel measures 1.4 x
1.2 cm.
tlichen Kunst, W,' Jahrbuch fur Antike und Christentum, 4 (1961), 128
composed of nine discs set off by pairs of pellets. The hoop is 1.9
2.1 cm in diameter; the bezel, which takes the form of a truncated
cone (.4 cm thick), is 1.2 cm in diameter.
14. See Garrucci, Storia, pi. 478, no. 10. For other parallels, see his
pis. 477, 478; Dalton Catalogue, pis. I, II; and Klauser, "Studien, IV,"
141, 142. Most often the bird appears without the Ark, in combina
tion with another motif or symbol (e.g., a fish).
16. Dalton, Catalogue, nos. 190, 207. See also Sp?tantike und fr?hes
Christentum, Liebieghaus Museum alter Plastik, Frankfurt am Main,
and Art of the Migration Period (Washington, DC, 1965), no. 50 (here
after, Ross, Catalogue).
the bride received a silver ring and the groom a gold ring. See P. N.
30. For example, Banck, USSR, no. 106c. See also Vikan, "Magic,"
83.
20. For some examples, see Dalton, Catalogue, no. 133; Ross, Cata
logue, nos. 4, 67, 68; A. Banck, Byzantine Art in Collections of the USSR
Spieser, "Canellopoulos").
21. Figure 9 (6th-7th c): TL 10.1985.061 (gold; excellent condi
tion). The polygonal hoop is semicircular in section with a 1.6-1.8
Werner, Der Grabfund von Malaja Perescepina und Kuvrat, Kagan der
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42. Also included is an incised quatrefoil ring very much like the
Zucker ring illustrated in Figure 16. The Zucker ring, by its small
size, was likely made for a woman, and the hoard's silver ring bears a
(no. 31.50.251).
47. Walters Art Gallery, no. 57.1053 (9th-10th c). The bezel is
an omicron (upper left) and tau (upper right) on the Zucker ring
Dniepre et des c?tes de la Mer Noire (Kiev, 1907), V, pl. 23; Dalton,
Catalogue, no. 171; Ross, Catalogue, nos. 105,131; Spieser, "Canello
poulos," nos. 21-23; and Collection H?l?ne Stathatos, 2: les objets byzan
43
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