“When Kyivan Rus, a powerful new state to the north of the Byzantine Empire, accepted Christianity as its official religion in 988, the aristocracy also adopted the manners and dress of the Byzantine court. Local artists soon produced their own versions of Constatinopolitan fashions. This temple pendant of precious metals worked in cloisonné enamel or niello are local variants of the more intricately detailed works made for the Byzantine court.
As in Byzantium, temple pendants may have been worn next to the face by both the men and the women of Rus. The works shown here were perhaps buried by their owners when the Mongol armies under Batu Khan sacked Kyiv in 1240,” states The Met Museum’s page.
L. V. Perars’ka, the Head of the Department of Medieval Kyiv at the Museum of Historical Treasures of Ukraine, and Special Research Assistant in the Department of Medieval and Later Antiquities at The British Museum in her work ‘Treasures from Ancient Kyiv in The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Dumbortan Oaks‘ wrote:
“Kolts with depictions of sirens (creatures with the face of a woman and the body of a bird) are very rare. The appearance of ancient Rus’ sirens in a Christian context distinguishes them from both the oriental and the Greek forms.
The first surviving depictions of sirens produced in ancient Rus appear on kolts from the Kyivan treasure of 1842 preserved in the Metropolitan Museum and in the Museum of Historical Ukrainian Treasures in Kyiv (DM-6481). Only fourteen of them were found in Kyiv or in the Kyiv region. The sirens are depicted in pairs, with a strict and handsome type of face, curls of dark hair on both sides of the head, and a symbolic crown with a colored gem in the middle. The feathers are very motley and rich. In the center of the medallion, between the sirens, there is usually a symbolic Tree of Life. The depictions of sirens vary only in the details of their headgear and the shape of the tail feathers.
This type of jewelry is often called Rusian-Byzantine, but as used here the term “Byzantine” characterizes the type and quality of art, not its place of manufacture. Byzantine influence on the artistic culture of Kyivan Rus was different at different periods, and although the two cultures were closely connected, the development of art in Rus was a result of its own background and culture.
Since the eleventh century, local architects, painters, and goldsmiths prospered in Kyiv. The numerous treasures of medieval Kyiv hidden in the ground indicate through the shape of their jewelry, style, and subjects that Kyiv developed its own goldsmiths’ workshops and traditions out of its Byzantine heritage. The remains of jewelry workshops, with tools and bits of enamel, were found on the grounds of the princely palace in Kyiv. Among the items found was an iron form that was used to make each half of a kolt’s convex section and a bronze pattern with a cutout openwork depiction of two birds flanking a tree that was used as a model in preparing the gold sheet. This matrix fits the depiction on one of the kolts from the Museum.
An analogous pair of kolts was found near Desiatynna Church in 1876 and then entered the private collection of B. Khanenko. The findplace supports the belief that kolts of this type were manufactured in a goldsmith’s workshop belonging to the princely court of ancient Kyiv. No exact copy of a Byzantine object has been located in the Kyivan jewelry that has been found. Furthermore, no hoard of this period has been discovered in Constantinople containing pieces manufactured in local workshops. Unlike Kyivan jewelry, the Byzantine pieces of the same period (including earrings, rings, crosses, cameos, steatite icons) are not clearly tied to any particular center of manufacture. One can discern a difference only in the quality of manufacture among groups of gold jewelry with enamel, pearls, and gems”
Medallions from the same Kyiv Hoard >
More artifacts from the same period in the ‘Gardariki, Ukraine‘ ebook.
