Octagonal Pendant with Corinthian Column Spacers and Clasp Set (324–26 CE): Art, History and Details

Octagonal Pendant with Corinthian Column Spacers and Clasp Set (324–26 CE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Mounted at the center of this octagonal pendant is a rare coin issued by Constantine the Great, the Roman Empire’s first Christian emperor. Constantine’s portrait appears on the coin’s front, those of two of his sons on the back. Constantine’s image is surrounded by male and female busts, some of which are mythological figures. The pendant once formed the centerpiece of a sumptuous gold necklace, likely a gift for a high-ranking court official or member of the imperial family. This larger necklace is thought to have included four additional coin-set pendants—two hexagonal and two circular, now in Washington, DC (Dumbarton Oaks), London (British Museum), and Paris (Musée du Louvre).

Object facts

• Title: Octagonal Pendant with Corinthian Column Spacers and Clasp Set
• Date: 324–26 CE
• Culture: Byzantium, Late Roman, Eastern Mediterranean, (probably Sirium or Nicomedia), Byzantine period
• Type: Jewelry
• Technique: gold
• Collection: MED - Byzantine
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1994.98

A detail from the museum

Using the opus interrasile openwork technique, a goldsmith delicately punched and filed hundreds of tiny holes to create the intricate filigree pattern on this pendant.

Collection credit

Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Bergman, R. "A Gold Medallion from the Age of Constantine." Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 35, no. 1 (January 1995): 4-6.
• Deppert-Lippitz, Barbara. "Late Roman Splendor: Jewelry from the Age of Constantine." Cleveland Studies in the History of Art 1 (1996): 30-71.
• Grierson, Philip. "Six Late Roman Medallions in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection." Dumbarton Oaks Papers 50 (1996): 139-45.

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.