Lot 69B
Europe, late period Viking / Kievan Rus and/or Byzantine, ca. 9th to 12th century CE. A pair of cast bronze cross pendants, one of which has an enameled interior. Both have ornate, bulbous terminals on each arm and a loop off one arm for suspension. Many cross pendants from this time period had enamel in bright blues, oranges, reds, and other colors, reminding us that, although today it can seem darker, the ancient world was just as colorful as our own. Size: 1.25" W x 1.5" H (3.2 cm x 3.8 cm)
During this time period, the Vikings in the east - known sometimes as the Kievan Rus - had extensive contact with the Byzantine Empire. This included adopting Christianity straight from the Byzantines, including their iconography and artwork styles. The Vikings were some of the last holdouts in an increasingly Christian Europe, and the Vikings who had settled in western Russia saw many missions throughout the 9th and 10th centuries. Christian Slavonic sources somewhat hysterically decried the entrenched paganism of these people, and further contact between members of the Rus and Christians were recorded throughout the early 10th century, with members of the Byzantine court taken with the ruling regent of Rus, Olga of Kiev, who came to visit the Emperor Constantine VII and left with a bishop and priests from Rome. Paganism was once again brought to the forefront by Olga's grandson, Vladimir the Great, who had an idol to the chief deity, Perun, placed on a hill by his palace. However, he was a final holdout, and in the year 986 or 987, he spoke with representatives of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (supposedly rejecting the latter because of their restriction on alcohol) and, in exchange for a Byzantine bride and a military alliance, he was baptized as a Christian and exhorted his people into the Dnieper River at Kiev for a mass baptism. This is marked as the true end of paganism for the people who were once Vikings in Russia.
Provenance: private Orange County, California, USA collection
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#127740
- Condition: Dark patina on surface of both. Much of the enamel remains on one of them, while the other never had enamel. Enameled one has a slightly bent tip.
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