Necklace
probably 5th century
Medium
Gold, glass, and silvered glass beads (modern setting)
Dimensions
60 × 0.5 cm (23 5/8 × 3/16 in.); Diam.: 0.5 cm (3/16 in.)
Classification
necklace
Department
Arts of Greece, Rome, and Byzantium
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
65681
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
This necklace would have lent an appearance of far greater wealth to its owner than the actual value of its component parts. Made of gold and glass, the necklace includes silvered glass beads circled by flat gold disks that were meant to look like large pearls. The rounded end of the clasp does contain one small pearl, surrounded by gold wirework that imitates the gold openwork typical of early Byzantine jewelry between the third and the seventh century.
About the Artist
Byzantine
"Byzantine" is the collective attribution given to anonymous artists working within the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire, whose creations spanned from the 4th to the 15th centuries, primarily in Constantinople and its cultural sphere. These masters produced a vast body of art that defined an era, with museums like the Walters Art Museum and the Art Institute of Chicago cataloging numerous works un...