Lot 27A
Byzantium, ca. 11th to 13th century CE. A miniature 23K+ gold repousse icon presenting a Crucifixion scene of an emaciated Christ on the Cross, His head fallen to one shoulder and wearing a Crown of Thorns. Below Him are the Virgin Mary to the right of Christ and St. John the Evangelist to the left of Christ, their heads gently inclined toward Christ on the Cross. This depiction of Christ as emaciated and wearing a Crown of Thorns was an 11th century development; in contrast, earlier Byzantine imagery typically showed Christ as a wide-eyed triumphant Savior. This now familiar depiction of a suffering Christ on the Cross would continue in the West thereafter. A precious gold icon perhaps used for private devotional prayer or to embellish a religious article. Weight: 3.3 grams. Size: 1.3" W x 1.6" H (3.3 cm x 4.1 cm); gold quality: 98%, equivalent to 23K+ gold.
The inclusion of the Mother of God and St. John (the disciple He loved) flanking the Cross visually interpreted the passage from John's gospel (19: 26-27) in which the living Christ entrusted the Virgin Mary to the care of John. As stated, "Jesus saw his mother, with the disciple whom he loved standing beside her. He said to her, 'Mother, there is your son' and to the disciple, 'There is your mother'; and from that moment the disciple took her into his home."
Repousse is a metalwork embossing technique that various ancient civilizations employed to create a decorative or iconographic relief in gold, silver, copper and other malleable metals, by skillfully hammering the sheet of metal, gold in this case, from the reverse. This technique was used for ancient shields, jewellery, and icon plaques like this example.
Provenance: ex-Phoenicia Holyland Antiquities; ex Mrs. Moghraby collection, New Jersey, USA 1990s
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#155088
- Condition: Very slightly bent across the middle. Peripheries are uneven due to minute losses. Motifs are very well preserved and generally vivid with some smoothing at the margins.
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