Pendant Brooch with Enthroned Virgin and Child in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, January 2008

Pendant Brooch with Cameo of Enthroned Virgin and Child and Christ Blessing
Chalcedony cameo and a sardonyx intaglio
Byzantine, made late 1000s-1100s; mount made: 1100s-1300s.

Accession # 2007.9

The elaborately carved cameo displays the enthroned Virgin and Christ Child flanked by archangels, as often depicted in the apse of Byzantine churches. The frame is typical of the Rus, peoples of the north who had been converted by the Orthodox Christian clergy of Constantinople and thus prized Byzantine works.

Text from the Metropolitan Museum of Art label.