Crescent-Shaped Earring (1000–1100): Art, History and Details

Crescent-Shaped Earring (1000–1100) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

The Byzantine lady who wore this earring may also have woven similar ornaments into her hair. Those who could afford it adorned not only their body but also their clothing with glittering jewels and shimmering gold.

Object facts

• Title: Crescent-Shaped Earring
• Date: 1000–1100
• Culture: Byzantium, Constantinople?, Byzantine period, 11th century
• Type: Jewelry
• Technique: gold filigree with cloisonné enamel
• Dimensions: Average: 2.3 x 2.6 cm (7/8 x 1 in.)
• Collection: MED - Byzantine
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1946.493

A detail from the museum

Small gold cells were created to hold enamel paste of different colors; when fired, they harden and appear jewel-like.

Collection credit

Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust

Further reading listed by the museum

• Walters Art Gallery (Baltimore, Md.), and Dorothy Eugenia Miner. Early Christian and Byzantine Art, An Exhibition Held at the Baltimore Museum of Art, April 25-June 22 [1947]. Baltimore: Trustees of the Walters Art Gallery, 1947.
• Milliken, William. "Byzantine Jewelry and Associated Pieces." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 34, no. 7 (September 1947): 167-175. Published as 1715.46

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.