Through a Glass Brightly: Studies in Byzantine and Medieval Art and Archaeology Presented to David Buckton

by Chris Entwistle, Peter Lasko, Donald M. Bailey

The twenty-five papers in this volume cover diverse aspects of the material culture of the late Roman, Byzantine and Medieval periods, with particular emphasis on the metalwork and enamel of these times. Individual papers include major reinterpretations of objects in the British Museum's Byzantine collections as well as essays devoted to the Museum's recent acquisitions in this field. The volume celebrates the retirement of David Buckton, for over twenty years the curator of the British Museum's Early Christian and Byzantine collections and the National Icon Collection.

Table of Contents

Bibliography for David Buckton
Preface ( Peter Lasko )
1. A dandy the Ambleteuse clepsydra, Empedocles, and wine-thieves I have known ( Donald M. Bailey )
2. Hellenistic to Late Roman ( Catherine Johns )
3. Light on Byzantium - a universal sundial at the British Museum ( Silke Ackermann )
4. Visualising women in Late Antique the Projecta casket ( Jas Elsner )
5. Sources of cloisonne some early fused gold and glass inlays ( Noel Adams )
6. On the date of the Symmachi panel and the so-called Grado Chair ivories ( Paul Williamson )
7. Who's that girl? Personifications of the Byzantine empress ( Liz James )
8. A painting of Saint Kollouthos ( Maria Vassilaki )
9. Three illuminating objects in the Lampsacus treasure ( Marlia M. Mango )
10. Early Byzantine mercantile communities in the West ( Ken Dark )
11. Studying the Byzantine staurotheque at Esztergom ( Paul Hetherington )
12. Saint Theodore and the Dragon ( Christopher Walter )
13. Apotropaic devices on Byzantine lead seals in the Collections of Dumbarton Oaks and the Fogg Museum of Art ( John W. Nesbitt )
14. Middle Byzantine (10th-13th century AD) stamp seals in semi-precious stone ( Jeffrey Spier )
15. The Bristol Psalter ( Leslie Brubaker )
16. The production of red glass and enamel in the Late Iron Age, Roman and Byzantine periods ( Ian C. Freestone, Colleen P. Stapleton and Valery Rigby )
17. 'The Celtic Fringe': two enamelled mounts ( Susan Youngs )
18. Some late tenth- and eleventh-century Cloisonne brooches and finger-rings from Denmark ( Fritze Lindahl )
19. Containers for Agnus Deis ( John Cherry )
20. Design and Innovation in Gothic Mildenhall and Ely ( Barrie Singleton )
21. Abbe James antiquary, patron of the arts, Victorian Anglo-Catholic ( Paul Corby Finney )
22. Nineteenth-century versions of the Veroli Casket ( Anthony Cutler )
23. A Venetian goblet made for the Paris Exhibition of 1878 with gold leaf medallions of Early Christian martyrs ( Judy Rudoe )
24. Felix Slade's forgotten version of the so-called Early Christian 'Amiens Chalice' ( Hugh Tait )
25. 'Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon Earth': the British Museum and the second Cyprus treasure ( Chris Entwistle )

256 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2003

About the author

Curator of Late Roman and Byzantine Collections

Chris Entwistle is responsible for the Early Christian and Byzantine collections from the eastern Mediterranean from the late third to the mid fifteenth century AD. The collections include, inter alia, metalwork (gold, silver and bronze), silver treasures (Esquiline, Carthage, Lampsacus and Cyprus), glass, textiles, ivories and pottery. In addition he curates the collections of Late Antique magical gems and Byzantine, Greek and Russian icons. His research interests are primarily concerned with metalwork, in particular jewellery.