Ornamental Brooch (c. 100–300 CE): Art, History and Details

Ornamental Brooch (c. 100–300 CE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

These brooches functioned as garment clasps (much like the generally larger fibulae) and are distinctive for their decorative enamels. The art of enameling was highly popular among the conquered peoples who lived on the outskirts of the Roman empire, chiefly the Celts and the Gauls. Though the enameling technique was practiced by the Romans themselves on small objects, the brightly colored decoration readily appealed to "barbarian" taste. By the AD 200s, enameled brooches like these were being made in abundance by the native peoples of Britain and Gaul (modern France and Belgium).

Object facts

• Title: Ornamental Brooch
• Date: c. 100–300 CE
• Culture: Gallo-Roman or Romano-British, Migration period
• Type: Jewelry
• Technique: bronze and champlevé enamel
• Dimensions: Overall: 5.7 x 3.2 x 2.2 cm (2 1/4 x 1 1/4 x 7/8 in.)
• Collection: MED - Migration Period
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1930.237

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• 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.