Fibulae (500s-600s): Art, History and Details

Fibulae (500s-600s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

A woman of high rank might have worn these twin fibulae on her shoulders, one fastening her inner garment on the right, the other her outer garment on the left. She might also have suspended them from her belt as decorative ornaments

Object facts

• Title: Fibulae
• Date: 500s-600s
• Culture: Alemannic, Migration Period, 6th-7th century
• Type: Jewelry
• Technique: cast silver, parcel-gilt, with niello
• Dimensions: Overall: 10.5 x 6.5 x 1.7 cm (4 1/8 x 2 9/16 x 11/16 in.)
• Collection: MED - Migration Period
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 2000.119.2

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Cleveland Museum of Art, “Recent Acquisitions Press Release,” December 12, 2000, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.
• Fliegel, Stephen N., "Wearable Wealth", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 42 no. 04, April 2002
• Cleveland Museum of Art, and Holger A. Klein. Sacred Gifts and Worldly Treasures: Medieval Masterworks from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2007.

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.