Visigoth Harness Pendant with Confronting Beasts in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, January 2010

Harness Pendant with Confronted Beasts, 500–600
Visigothic
Brass, leaded
3 1/2 x 3 in. (8.9 x 7.6 cm)
Purchase, Rogers Fund, Stephen K. Scher, Mrs. Maxime Hermanos, and Anonymous Gifts, Gift and Bequest of George Blumenthal, by exchange, and funds from various donors, 1990 (1990.52)

The Visigoths enjoyed lively commercial contacts with lands all around the Mediterranean. This pendant reveals the familiarity of their artists with motifs from Greece and the Near East. Above the heads of the beasts is the loop through which a harness strap could be passed.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/toah/ho/06/eusi/ho_1990.52.htm


The Visigoths

Of the many people who settled in the western lands once part of the Roman Empire, the Franks and Visigoths were among the most successful. They were, in fact, rivals in their territorial claims- both vying for lands situated along what is now the border between France and Spain. After the Franks led by king Clovis defeated the Visigoths in 507, the latter retreated into Spain. There they established a kingdom that flourished culturally and economically until the early 700s, when it was conquered by Muslims who crossed the Strait of Gibraltar from North Africa.

Text from the Metropolitan Museum of art- additional non-specific work label information.