拍品 356
356
A BYZANTINE GOLD 'LOTUS' RING, the circular piercedwork hoop decorated with vine scrolls within a beaded border, the raised lotus bezel set with a central glass inlay, surrounded by smaller pearl beads threaded on wire (some missing), 7th Century A.D.

細節
A BYZANTINE GOLD 'LOTUS' RING, the circular piercedwork hoop decorated with vine scrolls within a beaded border, the raised lotus bezel set with a central glass inlay, surrounded by smaller pearl beads threaded on wire (some missing), 7th Century A.D.
Finger size P

拍品專文

This is a particularly fine example of a well-known Byzantine ring type. The lotus flower symbolized the Virgin Mary and thus the birth of Christ. Some such rings bear the inscription "Mother of God". The iconography of the lotus as the birth place of Christ ultimately derives from Egyptian mythology with Horus, the young Sun god, being born from a lotus flower. Cf. Ross, no. 6e, 72 and 73. The type has been recorded from Italy, cf. Siviero, no. 534 for the Senise Treasure